The Diocese of Clifton is continuing to finance and promote a charity that openly endorses and facilitates the adoption of children by same sex couples, despite the Catholic Church’s formal withdrawal from adoption services in England and Wales on precisely those grounds.
The Catholic Herald can reveal that an optional special collection for Clifton Children’s Society is listed in the Clifton Diocesan Liturgical Diary for Sunday 11 January 2026, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
Clifton Children’s Society, known as CCS, originated as the Catholic Children’s Society of the Diocese of Clifton. Its transformation followed the 2007 introduction of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, which required all adoption agencies receiving public funding to place children with same sex couples. The Catholic Church in England and Wales opposed the legislation, arguing that it compelled Catholic agencies to act against conscience and doctrine. When the government refused to grant an exemption, Catholic adoption agencies across the country were forced either to close or to sever formal ties with the Church.
