Jan 17, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Catholics in Scotland are seeking an exemption for Church-run adoption agencies from laws that would allow children to be adopted by homosexual and lesbian couples. The law would come into force next year.
Church leaders are now asking the Scottish Executive to consider providing a “conscience clause” for church and other faith-based groups, which would allow them to reject same-sex couples considering adoption, reported the Universe Catholic Newspaper.
Bishop John Cunningham of Galloway said the new law undervalues “the unique contribution that a stable married couple can make to the upbringing of children and they have grave reservations concerning the ability of same sex-couples or unmarried heterosexual couples, however loving they might be, to provide the stability and the role models that a married couple can.
“If the proposals go ahead as they stand, the bishops would certainly expect an exemption similar to that given in England to the faith-based adoption agencies".
Cardinal Keith O’Brien has warned that Scotland’s adopted children must not become “guinea pigs in some distorted social experiment aimed at redefining marriage, subverting the family and threatening the good of society”.