LABOUR MP Jim Dobbin has described as “a tragedy” the decision by a Catholic adoption agency to stop finding new homes for children because of the Government’s new gay equality laws.
According to the Telegraph, the “faith-based” Catholic Children’s Rescue Service is to stop doing work it has carried out since 1886, and has accused ministers of discriminating against Roman Catholics.
The Catholic MP in Manchester, whose proudest moment was “becoming chairman of the all-party pro-life group in parliament”, said:
I don’t think there was any need for this legislation at all. It was forced through and was all done to avoid discrimination but all it has done is to introduce discrimination against agencies that operate according to the principles of a religious faith.
The Government will rue the day when it pursued this line of action. It smacks of a secular attack on the Catholic Church.
He added:
It is a tragedy. There is a shortage of people willing to adopt generally in the country and there is something very wrong when some of the better and more efficient agencies feel they have to close because they can’t conform to what the Government is demanding.
Directors of the CCRS say they have been forced to stop recruiting, assessing or approving couples who want to adopt children because of new legislation which means they cannot follow their religious beliefs by turning away homosexual couples.
The CCRS website says:
We believe in the right of every child to live a full existence and experience the richness of life. We are particularly concerned to reach out to the marginalised and isolated.
Several other adoption agencies around the country have cut their ties with the Roman Catholic Church – which has ruled that gay adoption is morally wrong – in order to comply with the Equality Act.
But the CCRS said it could not do so because it is so closely linked to the Diocese of Salford, and will become the first Catholic adoption agency to stop offering the service.
It will now merge with local Catholic welfare groups to provide care homes for children, homeless shelters and support for parents of adopted children.
Under the terms of the Equality Act, which comes into effect on New Year’s Day, discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the basis of sexual orientation is outlawed.
The law was forced through Parliament last year even though Tony Blair, the then Prime Minister who has now converted to Catholicism, wanted Catholic adoption agencies to be exempted from the rules.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
