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The Catholic Church of England and Wales has dug in for a battle with the government over proposed laws which would force their adoption agencies to consider placing children with gay couples. Catholic leader Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair and the cabinet Tuesday, warning that the Church would have to close its adoption agencies if legislation forced them to act against their teachings. Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, said the Church would have "serious difficulty" with planned regulations outlawing discrimination against homosexuals in the provision of goods and services. Plans to force Catholic adoption agencies to...

Two successive Baltimore County judges have delayed ruling on a child custody case involving a 7-year old girl who does not want to continue court-ordered visitations with the lesbian lover with whom her adoptive mother broke up after a live-in relationship that lasted from 1987 to 2004. In February, a court found that the mother’s former lover is also the child’s de facto parent, and required visitation with the child every Wednesday and every other weekend – a ruling that was upheld this month. Court records indicate that a court-appointed social worker reported that the forced overnight visits were causing...

Two Baltimore County judges have delayed ruling in a child- custody case that has forced a 7-year-old girl to spend time with her adoptive mother's former lesbian partner, despite objections from a court-appointed child-welfare specialist. A social worker for Baltimore County Circuit Court reported in August that the ex-partner's overnight visits with the girl "probably caused acute underlying turmoil" for the child, according to court records. "At this time, she seems emotionally vulnerable and experiencing severe anxiety in response to the crisis that this dispute has precipitated," social worker Cheryl Taylor says in the report. "Overnight weekend visits seem to...

Pop star Moby, known for his political statements as well as his music, says he'd do everything he could to make his future child homosexual should the singer ever have a family. He's also blasting conservatives Tom DeLay, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich as "amoral/immoral" right wingers. In an interview with Planet Out, a publication geared toward homosexuals, the musician, who is not "gay," was lamenting so-called homophobia in society when he suggested his future child should be raised to be a homosexual. "As a matter of fact, I was talking to my friend Laura, who sings on...

Indiana's Supreme Court let stand a ruling that allows unmarried couples, including those of the same sex, to adopt children through a joint petition that gives both partners equal custody. In a 4-1 decision posted Friday, the high court refused to hear arguments in the case. That left in tact the April ruling by the Indiana Court of Appeals, which had overturned a lower court's ruling that state law limits adoption to married couples and individuals. "The court acknowledged that two people can create a caring, stable, loving home for children without being married," said Patricia Logue, senior counsel for...

BOSTON --Chinese policies aimed primarily at keeping its children out of the homes of same-sex couples has helped cause a 6 percent drop in adoptions in Massachusetts in the last year. The University of Massachusetts Center for Adoption Research found that the adoption of Chinese babies in the state has declined by 17 percent, the Boston Globe reported Monday. Overall there were 161 fewer adoptions in Massachusetts in 2004 than the year before, the center found. While researchers pinpointed several factors that contributed to the drop, they determined that the policies of the Chinese government had the largest impact. In...

BELGIUM has voted into law a controversial bill allowing homosexual couples to adopt children, Belga news agency reported. The upper house of parliament, the Senate, today approved the bill by a razor-thin 34 votes to 33, with two abstentions. The vote in the lower house of parliament in December 2005 had also been narrow, at 77 votes to 62, with seven abstentions. Homosexual couples in Belgium won the right to marry in June 2003 and more than 5000 people have taken advantage of that law since it came into force. Now that the new law has been definitively approved, they...

As debate over the issue flares in several states, a major adoption institute says in a new report that it strongly supports the rights of gays and lesbians to adopt, and urges that remaining obstacles be removed. "Laws and policies that preclude adoption by gay or lesbian parents disadvantage the tens of thousands of children mired in the foster care system who need permanent, loving homes," the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute says in the report to be issued today. It advises agencies and officials to make firm statements in support of such adoptions, forsaking a "don't ask, don't tell"...

The San Francisco archdiocese is ending adoptions by homosexual couples through its Catholic Charities, a move that could jeopardize its public funding. The religious agency, which specializes in finding homes for hard-to-adopt children, has placed five children with same-sex couples since 2000, but Archbishop George Niederauer says there won't be any more, the San Francisco Chronicle said Tuesday. "These kinds of adoptions are not in sync with church teaching, and we've committed ourselves to being in sync with church teaching," a spokeswoman for the archbishop said. Last year, Catholic Charities received $800,000 from the state and $5 million from local...

San Francisco -- Without barring adoptions by gay families outright, San Francisco's new archbishop has made it clear he believes that placing children in same-sex households conflicts with Roman Catholic teachings on homosexuality, a spokesman said Monday. Archbishop George Niederauer therefore has asked the social services arm of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to bring its adoption program "fully in sync" with the church's views while continuing to find homes for hard-to-place youngsters, said spokesman Maurice Healy. "Our teaching on marriage and family life precludes these kinds of adoptions," Healy said. "We need to find another way to help this...

The fracas in Boston over Catholic Charities and the decision to shut down its adoption program is dispiriting on many scores. The Church says it cannot continue to place children with gay and lesbian couples, the board of Catholic Charities overwhelmingly rejects the Church’s position, and Fr. Bryan Hehir, head of the organization, says the “simpler” solution is just not to do adoptions at all. Well yes, the really simple solution would be to shut down Catholic Charities, and perhaps the Archdiocese of Boston itself. Think of the many advantages. The Boston Globe would not have the Catholic Church to...

San Francisco, Mar. 13, 2006 (CNA) - The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has said Catholic social service agencies should not place children with same-sex couples. In light of this, the Archdiocese of San Francisco is currently reviewing its practice of permitting homosexuals and lesbians to adopt children through its local Catholic Charities. Maurice Healy, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said the decision to review the policy came after Archbishop William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that bishops must not permit children to be adopted by same-sex couples....

Veteran singer Sir Elton John has refused to accept husband David Furnish's pleas of adopting a child, and has reportedly told his life partner he has no desire to be a father. Even though the Candle In The Wind singer is jointly sponsoring an African orphan with his spouse, he apparently has no intention of legally fathering a child, as he is convinced that as parents the couple will not be able to do justice with the child's upbringing. "We've talked about it a lot and, personally, I would. But Elton feels that we wouldn't be around enough at the...

If I told you that someone’s religious freedom was being violated or they were being persecuted, you would immediately think that I was talking about what’s happening in China or Vietnam. And while these are certainly the most egregious examples, religious freedom is also being trampled in a place that is, for me at least, closer to home: Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, adoption agencies must be licensed by the state and adhere to the state’s anti-discrimination laws, including laws prohibiting discrimination against gay couples. This puts Catholic Charities in a bind. The Vatican has called gay adoptions “gravely immoral” and said...

UNITED STATES, February 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) –Efforts to prevent gay adoption are moving into the center of the U.S. political scene, in what has been described as a “second front “ in the country’s culture wars. A significant number of states are working to introduce legislation banning gay adoption, or to amend existing laws. In at least 16 states, laws or the promise of legislation prohibiting adoption by gay or lesbian couples are prominent in the political landscape, with the question set to become a campaign issue for the next federal election. For the states of Georgia, Kentucky and Ohio,...

WASHINGTON – Harriet Miers, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, is on record as supporting the establishment of the International Criminal Court, homosexual adoptions, a major local tax increase and women in combat, WorldNetDaily has learned. While some conservative leaders and organizations were stunned by the appointment, most were not alarmed by the lack of a paper trail by the nominee who has never served as a judge at any level. But a profile of her positions as a leader of the American Bar Association, a Dallas city councilwoman and as presidential counselor...

SAN FRANCISCO - In the latest ruling to recognize rights of same-sex couples, the California Supreme Court has said gay and lesbian couples who raise children are lawful parents and must provide for their children if they break up. The state's custody and child support laws that hold absent fathers accountable also apply to estranged gay and lesbian couples who used reproductive science to conceive, the high court ruled Monday. Being a legal parent "brings with it the benefits as well as the responsibilities," said Justice Joyce Kennard. The decision comes a month after the justices ruled that a California...

The California Supreme Court on Monday became the first in the United States to grant full parenting rights and obligations to gays and lesbians who have children. In three closely watched cases, the justices set rules in an area where changes in family structure and advances in technology have outpaced the evolution of legal principles. In each case, they delivered a ruling that guaranteed that children born to gay couples have two legally recognized parents.

The Catholic church will not baptize the child of a same-sex couple if both parents want to sign the certificate of baptism, the Conference of Catholic Bishops said yesterday.The church's position emerged after independent Senator Marcel Prud'homme took issue with testimony from Marc Cardinal Ouellet on Wednesday at Senate committee hearings into the same-sex marriage bill.Cardinal Ouellet, who explained Roman Catholic opposition to the legislation is based partly on church doctrine against homosexual acts, said the Civil Marriage Act will present a range of difficult issues other than the question of marriage solemnization if the bill becomes law, as expected...

MADRID, Spain (LifeSiteNews.com) – In light of a pending vote in the Spanish Senate on same-sex marriage HazteOir, together with the Spanish Forum for the Family and the Institute for Family Policy, has published and distributed an in-depth report on the effects that being raised by same-sex parents has on a child. The report, entitled “Report on Infantile Development in Same-Sex Couples” and available only in Spanish at this time, gathers and compares information from a vast number of studies carried out on the issue. HazteOir, concerned by the apparent unquestioning acceptance in Spain of homosexual adoption, hopes that the...