Two stories this week pose the same question: what is marriage?
The first story concerns the condemnation by Cardinal Francis George, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, of the decision of a federal judge to overturn the so-called Proposition 8, a California voter-backed initiative that essentially banned same-sex marriage: eventually the matter will be decided by the US Supreme Court.
The second story is the decision of the Charity Commission not to allow Catholic Care, the last Catholic adoption agency still operating in England, to restrict its services to heterosexuals only. Discrimination on the grounds of sexuality, it pronounced, “departs from the principle of treating people equally”. They added that same-sex couples can be “successful” adoptive parents and that even if Catholic Care does close down, the children it would have helped will be placed with new families through “other channels”. It finally repeated the old mantra: “Clearly the interests of children are paramount.”
