Scottish Catholic adoption agency threatened with closure over gay adoption
Another British Catholic adoption agency is being threatened with closure by the government for refusing to toe the government’s line of support for the homosexualist political agenda.
St. Margaret’s Children and Family Care Society, associated with the Catholic archdiocese of Glasgow, has lost a ruling in its argument with the Scottish government’s charity regulator, which is demanding the charity drop its policy of adopting only to mothers and fathers who have been married for at least two years.
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has found St. Margaret’s in violation of the Equality Act 2010, saying that its policy "discriminated unlawfully" against same-sex couples. St. Margaret’s is remaining defiant, however, saying that they will fight the decision.
The Christian Institute campaign group quoted a St. Margaret’s board member saying, “The ultimate irony is that apparently in the name of tolerance, societies such as Saint Margaret’s are no longer to be tolerated.”
Their defiance is in sharp contrast to the response of the Catholic adoption agencies of England and Wales, many of whom when faced with an ultimatum from the government voluntarily - in some cases eagerly - disassociated themselves from the Catholic Church. St. Margaret’s board member Brian McGuigan said the agency’s “origins and identity are inseparable” from the Roman Catholic Church’s “values and moral teaching in respect to marriage and the family”.
“The reality is that the issue is not one about equality or diversity, but about freedom of religion and belief,” McGuigan added.
The charity’s annual report said, “Our country is on the brink of declaring illegal the belief that every child where possible deserves a mother and father."
St. Margaret’s is being supported by Glasgow’s Archbishop Philip Tartaglia and many in the Catholic community in Scotland. Tartaglia has described St. Margaret’s as “a treasure of the Church in Scotland.”
At a rally at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Tartaglia added, “The whole church is united in support for [St. Margaret’s] work and we hope that common sense will prevail, and it will be allowed to continue to serve children in Scotland who need loving families.”
At a rally at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Tartaglia added, “The whole church is united in support for [St. Margaret’s] work and we hope that common sense will prevail, and it will be allowed to continue to serve children in Scotland who need loving families.”
Very few of Britain’s faith-based adoption agencies have survived with their religious affiliation intact after the purge instigated in 2007 when the then-Labour government included “sexual orientation” as one of the grounds for prohibited “discrimination” in the Equality Act.
A spokesman for the Glasgow City Council, which is pushing “gay” adoption in an advertising campaign, said that while St. Margaret’s chairman was “entitled to his views”: “They are not shared by all sections of civil society and that includes Glasgow City Council.”
Nevertheless, the charity is appealing to the Scottish Charities Appeal T
