Catholics say pulling out is best option

The Catholic Church would rather not help kids get loving homes than comply with a law that provides equality for people of different sexual orientations. Yes, they're so bound up with matters of sex that they lose sight of the more charitable role that Christians claim it is their mission to fulfil.

A piece in the Mail on Sunday says the Catholic Church is pulling out of three of its top adoption agencies because "it cannot comply with Labour's new gay equality laws".

The Catholic Church will, it says, "this week cut its ties with the Surrey-based Catholic Children’s Society, one of the biggest in the country covering much of the South-East. The dioceses of Nottingham and Northampton have also decided to pull out of their agencies."

The Mail on Sunday says insiders believe that "the Catholic Children’s Society for the dioceses of Arundel and Brighton, Southwark and Portsmouth will this week agree plans to cut its ties with the Church and be renamed the Cabrini Children’s Society". It doesn't explain the mechanism by which that will impact on the agencies, but we assume funding will be hit.

The former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith (pictured) is calling it a tragedy. "We are taking the ethos out of these adoption agencies and leaving them with a crisis, all because the government wouldn’t listen," he says.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.