Catholic Care is the only adoption agency in England and Wales still fighting to stay open since new legislation was introduced forcing it to assess people in civil partnerships as adoptive parents. The appeal, held in the to Royal Courts of Justice on 3rd & 4th March 2010 allowed Catholic Care to challenge the Charity Commission and the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. Mr Justice Briggs heard the appeal that was a re-examination of the evidence presented to the Charity Tribunal hearings.
Mr Christopher Mc Call QC, representing Catholic Care, argued that it was a legitimate request to ask the Charity Commission to allow changes to the Charity's governing instruments that would permit it to continue its important and vital work yet restrict assessment of potential adoptive people to married and single people only. Mr Mc Call summarised that is was not that the charity wanted to discriminate, but that it had to in order for the charity to do its work and benefit children through providing an adoption service. This was the ‘weighty' justification - to benefit hard to place children awaiting adoption.
The Charity Commission argued that there was no clear public benefit that entitled Catholic Care to change its charitable objects and that Catholic Care was fighting a battle already lost in parliament. The Commission for Equality & Human Rights argued that all charities needed to have mutual respect for other people's rights and values and that there were issues at stake regarding the ‘equality of dignity and respect' and also the ‘equality of capability to participate fully in society'.
The decision of the court will take approximately 3- 5 weeks to be known.
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Catholic Care acts to support those in need of its services, especiallly the weak and the vunerable and it acts as an advocate for those unable to represent themselves
The primary purpose of the agency is to foster and influence a vision of how people can live together in Christian charity, love and justice, by taking the "Caring Church into the Community
