www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/it1/Articolo.asp?c=114115
24/01/2007 19.14.11
Regno Unito Card. O’Connor: La legge anti-discriminazione penalizza gli enti cattolici
LONDRA, 24 gen ’07 - Il Presidente della Conferenza episcopale dell’Inghilterra e del Galles, cardinale Cormac Murphy O’Connor, ha scritto una lettera [1] al Primo Ministro Blair in cui, a nome dei vescovi, chiede, di esentare le agenzie cattoliche di adozione dalla recente legge contro le discriminazioni. Le nuove regole, che entreranno in vigore il prossimo aprile, renderanno illegale ogni forma di discriminazione sulla base di sesso, razza, religione o orientamento sessuale, e puntano a proteggere gli omosessuali anche nel campo delle adozioni. Il timore dei vescovi espresso nella lettera del cardinale O’Connor è che, se applicata anche alle agenzie cattoliche, che non prendono in considerazione per l’adozione le coppie omosessuali, queste saranno costrette a chiudere. Un’evenienza - sottolinea il Primate inglese - che avrebbe conseguenze “tragiche” per i tanti bambini orfani o abbandonati che aspettano di essere adottati, ma che potrebbe essere facilmente “evitata”. “Imporre per legge alle agenzie cattoliche di offrire questo servizio contro gli insegnamenti della Chiesa e la loro coscienza - insiste la lettera – è per i vescovi un’ irragionevole, inutile e ingiusta discriminazione contro i cattolici”.
La Chiesa – ribadisce quindi il card. O’Connor - è assolutamente contraria a qualsiasi forma di “discriminazione, violenza e molestia verso le persone omosessuali”, che secondo la dottrina cattolica “devono essere accolte con rispetto, compassione e sensibilità” e in questo senso è favorevole alla nuova legislazione. Essa non può però avallare quella parte del provvedimento che contravviene ai suoi insegnamenti sulla famiglia fondata sul matrimonio monogamico tra persone di sesso diverso.
[1]
NDR/VEDI:
Jan. 22, 2007
Dear Prime Minister and Members of the Cabinet,
It has always been the wish of the Catholic Church in this country to work with the government for the common good of its people. We believe we do this in matters of social care, education and in many other ways. Catholic teaching urges us to do this, and we do it gladly in a spirit of cooperation.
We would, however, have a serious difficulty with the proposed regulations on discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services if they required our adoption agencies to consider homosexual couples as potential adoptive parents.
The Catholic Church utterly condemns all forms of unjust discrimination, violence, harassment or abuse directed against people who are homosexual. Indeed the Church teaches that they must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. We, therefore, recognize many elements of recent legislation -- including much in the Northern Ireland regulations -- that takes steps to ensure that no such discrimination takes place.
What, then, is the problem? It is that to oblige our agencies in law to consider adoption applications from homosexual couples as potential adoptive parents would require them to act against the principles of Catholic teaching. We require our agencies to recruit and approve appropriate married and single people to meet the needs of children in local authority care for whom adoption has been identified as being in their best interest. We place significant emphasis on marriage, as it is from the personal union of a man and a woman that new life is born and it is within the loving context of such a relationship that a child can be welcomed and nurtured. Marital love involves an essential complementarity of male and female. We recognize that some children, particularly those who have suffered abuse and neglect, may well benefit from placement with a single adoptive parent.
However, Catholic teaching about the foundations of family life, a teaching shared not only by other Christian Churches but also other faiths, means that Catholic adoption agencies would not be able to recruit and consider homosexual couples as potential adoptive parents.
We believe it would be unreasonable, unnecessary and unjust discrimination against Catholics for the government to insist that if they wish to continue to work with local authorities, Catholic adoption agencies must act against the teaching of the Church and their own consciences by being obliged in law to provide such a service.
Catholic adoption agencies have readily accepted their responsibility to provide an informative, sympathetic and helpful service to all those who enquire about adoption, whether or not they meet the agency's criteria for acceptance for assessment. Catholic adoption agencies welcome adoptive applicants from any or no religious background. Homosexual couples are referred to other agencies where their adoption application may be considered. This "sign-posting" responsibility is taken very seriously by all Catholic adoption agencies.
This is an appeal for "fair play," particularly for those many children, Catholic or not, who continue to benefit from the widely recognized, professional and committed adoption services provided through our Catholic adoption agencies. Giving protection to the rights of Catholic adoption agencies to act with integrity will preserve an excellent and highly valued adoption service, representing 32% of the voluntary adoption sector, with an outstanding record of finding stable and loving homes for some of the most disadvantaged children in society -- including children who have been abused, physically, sexually and emotionally; children with disability and limited life expectancy; and large sibling groups who need a family where they can grow up together. Catholic adoption agencies continue to excel in their commitment and acknowledged success in securing and sustaining adoptive families for such children while maintaining the lowest rates of adoption disruption in the United Kingdom.
Our agencies receive fees from local authorities directly linked to their adoption work. In addition they are supported generally by the Catholic Church community. Catholics contribute generously both by offering themselves as potential adoptive parents and through the financial contributions they make. They do this because they believe the Catholic [?]
The Church should contribute to the common good in this way. It is this voluntary contribution that ensures additional support services of a very high standard being sustained for children and families, often over many years, by the Catholic voluntary adoption sector.
Our agencies have an excellent track record, which is well documented by the Commission for Social Care in their Regulatory Inspection Programme. It would be an unnecessary tragedy if legislation forced the closure of these adoption services, thereby significantly reducing the potential resources of adoptive families for the approximately 4,000 children currently waiting for adoption placements.
This outcome is wholly avoidable. We urge you to ensure that the regulations shortly to be laid before Parliament enable our agencies to continue their work with local authorities for the common good. There is nothing to lose, and children waiting for an adoptive family have much to gain, by our continuing successful collaboration.
Yours sincerely,
Archbishop of Westminster
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www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=11711&lan=ita
(...)
Anche l'Arcivescovo Mario Conti, Vicepresidente della Conferenza Episcopale Scozzese, ha scritto una lettera al Primo Ministro esprimendo il suo appoggio alla posizione del Cardinale Murphy-O'Connor sull'adozione da parte delle coppie omosessuali. Quello che preoccupa di più i Vescovi Scozzesi, secondo quanto si legge nella lettera, è che nella fase di elaborazione della legge il governo aveva assicurato che sarebbero stati realizzati tutti gli sforzi possibili per proteggere la posizione dalle agenzie cattoliche. Pertanto la normativa proposta sarebbe un tradimento a questo impegno. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 24/1/2007)
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www.agi.it/dal-mondo/notizie/200701231431-cro-rt11115-...
G. B.: PRIMATE CHIESA CATTOLICA CONTRO LEGGE ADOZIONI PER GAY
(AGI) - Londra, 23 gen. -
(...)
L'uscita del cardinale ha sollevato polemiche. "Il Vaticano sta aumentando la pressione anche qui nella sua guerra contro gli omosessuali", ha dichiarato il reverendo Martin Reynolds, portavoce del Movimento cristiano gay e lesbiche.
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www.guardian.co.uk/gayrights/story/0,,1997404,00.html
Anglicans back Catholics in gay adoption row
Will Woodward and Stephen Bates
Wednesday January 24, 2007
The Guardian
The government's difficulties over granting equal adoption rights for gay couples deepened last night as the two archbishops of the Church of England gave their support to the Catholic church's opposition to the plans.
In a joint letter to Tony Blair, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, warned that government splits over the issue threatened to polarise opinion and said the personal conscience of Christians was being put at risk.
They said: "In legislating to protect and promote the rights of particular groups, the government is faced with the delicate but important challenge of not thereby creating the conditions within which others feel their rights have been ignored or sacrificed, or in which the dictates of personal conscience are put at risk.
"The rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well meaning."
The Archbishop of Canterbury is already facing splits within the international Anglican communion over the issue of homosexual ordinations and gay civil partnerships among the clergy. His stance is poignant because of his longstanding friendship with a gay Welsh Anglican priest who, with his partner, has raised a boy with severe behavioural difficulties.
Downing Street said yesterday that Mr Blair had yet to make up his mind in the dispute over regulations that would require Catholic adoption agencies to consider gay couples as prospective adoptive parents. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, has demanded an exemption for Catholic adoption agencies, arguing that they would be forced to close down rather than act "against their consciences".
Ruth Kelly, the communities secretary, said she was confident that the eventual solution would promote "dignity, respect and fairness for all".
Mr Blair and Ms Kelly are trying to broker a deal that could include a transition period for Catholic agencies, or the merger of Catholic and non-Catholic agencies. The Department for Education and Skills believes it can fill the gap if the Catholic agencies disband. They accounted for 4% of the 2,900 adoptions last year.
"This is an issue with sensitivities on all sides and the prime minister recognises that and that is why it is worth having some discussions in government before we come to a decision," Mr Blair's official spokesman said.
In a letter to Labour MPs, Ms Kelly said it raised "difficult issues about how to reconcile potentially competing rights and freedoms" of sexual orientation and religious expression.
"There are, for example, strongly held and conflicting views about the position of religious adoption agencies which are a small part of the sector but have a long and successful history with some of the hardest to place children.
"It is argued that if they are brought within the scope of the regulations these agencies would close. This, it is said, would have a damaging impact on the size of the pool of potential parents who might adopt vulnerable children and thus reduce their chance of adoption."
Ms Kelly added: "On the other hand, it is argued equally forcefully that, as a matter of principle, no adoption agency should be allowed to discriminate and that a Labour government has to tackle every form of discrimination."
Other ministers believe, however, that gay couples are just as likely as Catholic couples to take in difficult children.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "The Catholic church must not be permitted to control our legislature through this kind of blackmail. It did the same thing over the faith school quotas proposed last month. If it manages to achieve the same result with these regulations, we need to ask who is running this country - the government or the Vatican?"
The archbishops' letter concluded: "It would be deeply regrettable if in seeking, quite properly, better to defend the rights of a particular group not to be discriminated against, a climate were to be created in which, for example, some feel free to argue that members of the government are not free to hold public office on the grounds of their faith affiliation."
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GCN, Ireland
GAY PRIEST WADES INTO UK ADOPTION ROW
24 January 2007
A gay priest is accusing the Catholic Church of "holding the British Government to ransom" in the face of new gay rights legislation.
The Rev Martin Reynolds, director of communications for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, heavily criticised a call from the leader of Catholics in England, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, for Catholic adoption agencies to be exempt from plans to make them consider gay couples as prospective adoptive parents.
The Cardinal has warned that it would be an "unnecessary tragedy" if legislation forced the closure of the Catholic adoption services in England and Wales.
"It is sad to see the Roman Catholic Church holding the Government to ransom,” said Fr Reynolds. "We believe that the best interests of children are not being served by this political game-playing."
Last night, leaders of the Church of England stepped into the public debate on adoption rights for gay couples, warning the Government not to take a step which might lead religious people to feel that their consciences bar them from undertaking valuable public service.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Rowan Williams and John Sentamu, wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair warning him, "The rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well-meaning."
Fr Reynolds said he had once rung a Catholic adoption agency to offer himself and his male partner as prospective parents, but "didn't get past the receptionist".
The Welsh couple have been together for 27 years and became civil partners last year. They have been long-term foster carers to a 19-year-old boy with severe learning difficulties and behavioural problems who is now poised to enter higher education.
Fr Reynolds said he believed the stance being taken by the Catholic Church in England and Wales was being driven by a hard-line Vatican approach.
Downing Street said yesterday that the British Prime Minister had yet to make up his mind on the issues raised by Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor.
"This is an issue with sensitivities on all sides and the Prime Minister recognises that and that is why it is worth having some discussions in Government before we come to a decision," the Tony Blair’s official spokesman said. "Each individual adoption agency must make its judgment on the basis on which it places a child, and the child's interests are paramount. But if we take the view as a society that we should not discriminate against people who are homosexual, you cannot give exclusions to people on the grounds that their religion or their race says 'we don't agree with that'."