Prelate Fights Gay Adoption Law

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, has called on his flock to join a campaign against new gay rights laws. Archbishop Nichols urged Catholics in the city to write to their MPs in protest at the Sexual Orientation Regulations, published last week by the Government.

The Catholic Church has led a campaign against the regulations, which make it illegal to discriminate against gay couples when placing children for adoption. The Church says that this goes against its teaching and that its adoption agencies would be forced to close as a result.

In a letter read out at services yesterday, Archbishop Nichols said that the regulations implied an understanding of the family and of children’s needs in which the claims of same-sex couples were placed above the beliefs of all major religions.