In 2007, the government shut down Catholic adoption agencies. They didn’t put it like that, of course: they just insisted that, as a result of the Equality Act, agencies would be legally required to place children with same-sex couples. As a result, agencies which wanted to stay Catholic had to close their doors. It was, the prime minister Tony Blair claimed, a policy which “reasonable people” should be able to accept.
This sad episode illustrated the clash between Catholicism and 21st-century beliefs about sexual freedom. It also suggested that, in the post-Equality Act era, Catholic institutions might find themselves on the wrong side of the law – even if they were providing an essential and highly regarded service.
