Catholic Adoption agencies in the UK which were forced out of the adoption business because of their refusal to place children with gay couples may have been given a reprieve, or at least another chance.

The High Court ordered the Charity Commission to reconsider its decision to bar Catholic Care as a result of its no gay adoption policy.

Exactly what this means for the future of Catholic adoption in the UK is uncertain as the High Court only ordered the Commission to reconsider. Bishop Roche responded by saying “The judgment today will help in our determination to continue to provide this invaluable service to benefit children, families and communities.

“We look forward to producing evidence to the Charity Commission to support the position that we have consistently taken through this process: that without being able to use this exemption, children without families would be seriously disadvantaged.”

While this is good news for authentically Catholic adoption agencies, it makes manifest the cowardice of those agencies who broke with the Church to maintain their government funding. You should fought for your beliefs, if you had any, rather than the money.

Nevertheless, this is good news and I hope that it ends with a good common sense decision to allow Catholic adoption agencies to continue the great work they have always done.

In the appeal Catholic Care “argued at the High Court that it had achieved particular success in finding adoptive parents for “hard to place” children. The support after adoption, funded by giving from within the Church, also meant that its adoptions had a lower failure rate. “

As true as this may be, it is obvious that those for those who made the decision in the first place, the welfare of children is subservient to the agenda.

I pray this works out.