The Catholic Church in England and Wales has lost the legal battle to retain its remaining few adoption agencies.The Charity Tribunal ruled on Monday that the Catholic Care adoption agency of the Diocese of Leeds could not continue as an adoption agency unless it assessed same-sex couples as potential adopters and foster parents.
The agency, which finds new families for about 20 children each year, wanted to continue to serve the Church as a diocesan charity.
It had applied to the Charity Commission to change its charitable objects so that it could appeal for an exemption under Regulation 18 of the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs), which ban discrimination against homosexuals in the provision of goods and services.
The regulation allows limited discrimination "in pursuance of a charitable instrument" or if "the restriction of benefits to persons of that sexual orientation is imposed by reason of, or on the grounds of, the provision of a charitable instrument".
But the Charity Tribunal ruled that it would be "unlawful" to allow Regulation 18 to be used as a defence by Catholic Care, saying that the proposed alteration of the objects "arose substantially out a desire to maintain a principled stance rather than being specifically designed to advance the... charitable purpose of the support, relief and care of children and young people without families to care for them".
The decision leaves Catholic Care with the option of appealing against the decision at the High Court. The agency could also either close down or break from the Church and become an independent, secular adoption agency, a policy already adopted by at least eight Catholic adoption agencies.
The decision also represents a blow to the Catholic Children's Society (Westminster) which from New Year's Day, the date from which the SORs applied to the Catholic agencies, suspended its adoption assessment services pending the outcome of the case.
The future is also uncertain for the Father Hudson's Society, the adoption agency of the Archdiocese of Birmingham which had lodged a joint appeal with Catholic Care against the original Charity Commission judgment but which last month withdrew ahead of the final ruling.
A Leeds diocese spokesman said: "It seems likely that the charities will need to close their adoption services and a flagship service will be lost. We are concerned about the possible impact this will have on potential adoptive parents and children."
So far none of the 11 Catholic adoption agencies of England and Wales, which together found families for about 250 children a year, has been able to survive the SORs.
However, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator allowed St Margaret's Adoption and Child Care of the Archdiocese of Glasgow to change its charitable objects to continue its policy of assessing only heterosexual married couples and single people as adopters.
Neil Addison, an expert on religious discrimination law, who was not consulted in the case, said he found the tribunal's ruling "highly questionable".
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