The Catholic adoption agencies, which every year place orphaned or abandoned children with hundreds of families, could be discriminated against by the bills of law of the British Government, aimed at protecting the rights of homosexuals. This is claimed by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, in a document that has just been delivered to the British Government, in which they explain that the Catholic agencies might be disadvantaged because they refuse to place children with gay couples. According to the Bishops, the new legislation, which is still being discussed, makes no distinctions between homophobia and religious belief, and could have a negative impact on some religious institutions, from the parishes to the schools. The new rules, which are due to be defined next Autumn, will make sex or race discrimination illegal and aim at protecting homosexuals who sometimes have been denied goods and services because of their sex preferences. The Catholic Bishops fear that the exceptions of the law would not adequately protect the twelve Catholic adoption agencies that placed 220 children on adoption last year. The Bishops would like the law to protect also those agencies, for instance the Catholic agencies, which do not accept gay couples as adoptive parents because they work in accordance with the principles of the Church. If this behaviour is considered discriminatory by the law, the Catholic adoption agencies might be closed down, say the Bishops.
