Catholic Care requests leave to appeal again6

Governance | Tania Mason | 31 May 2011

Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) has applied for leave to appeal the latest decision against it in the long-running case sparked by the Charity Commission’s refusal to allow it to prevent gay couples from using its adoption services.

Benjamin James, the Bircham Dyson Bell partner representing the charity, told civilsociety.co.uk that he had lodged the application with the Charity Tribunal on Sunday of last week. The Charity Tribunal now has to decide whether to grant leave to appeal. If it does, the appeal will be heard in the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery).

James said he had identified a number of errors in law in the Charity Tribunal judgment and so Catholic Care felt it was right to mount a fresh challenge.

If leave is granted, the Upper Tribunal hearing will be the eighth stage of the case. James said the charity’s trustees had given great consideration to the cost involved. “They are very conscious of the charity’s money and of the work they do with children, but they have spoken to donors and realised they won’t have any money to do anything with children if they let this go,” he said.

He said that if the trustees had been a given a clear answer based on law of how the Equality Act exemption can and cannot be applied, they might find it easier to accept the Charity Commission’s decision. But to date this has never been provided.

“The number of letters the charity has received opposing their position is less than ten, while they have had hundreds expressing positive support – and not just from Catholics,” James added.

He declined to say how much the case had cost so far but said it had been funded by donations, a legacy and a grant from a US foundation which supports legal actions for Catholic beliefs, with the charity making up the difference.

Directory: Bircham Dyson Bell

Place a comment

Andy
4 Jun 2011

@ Janet—There’s a difference between being bigoted and being true to your values. The bigots in this case are those who are trying to impose their values on Catholic Care.

@ Karen—It's not the Catholic Church who are funding this; it's the charity, who will have no reason to exist if the current ruling stands … and financial supporters who care about the outcome for these vulnerable children.

@Stolen—You are right; one groups 'rights' clash with another's. Who arbitrates? (It's pejorative to refer to it as revenge though.)

The letters that the charity has received shows the sort of response that ordinary people have to this sort of attack on organisations helping the most vulnerable in our society.

[Reply]

Alfred
School Teacher
3 Jun 2011

Children belong with a mother and a father and no amount of social engineering will change that. That is not ideology but evolution. The Catholic adoption societies are right to resist this imposed view in any way that they can.

As far as spending money on lawyers...if it improves the outcomes of the children in their care(and it just might) then its worth it.

[Reply]

Karen Drury
partner
fe3 consulting
1 Jun 2011

Good to see that the Catholic Church has sufficient money to spend on lawyers in this time of economic crisis.

[Reply]

Tony Ford
31 May 2011

Good for them! If the law has not been explained sufficiently well to them, they deserve a good answer from those imposing their values on the society - and wider society, too!

[Reply]

Stolen
31 May 2011

Seems the rights that one (LGBT) movement fought for ends being something stolen from another movement.

More a case of revenge than rights.

[Reply]

Janet Bull
31 May 2011

Catholic Care should be ashamed of themselves on two counts:
1. Being bigotted and stuck in the 19th century
2. Wasting an appalling amount of money by being bigotted and stuck in the 19th century

[Reply]

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.