Catholic adoption agency wins charity status appeal over same-sex row
St Margaret’s Child and Family Care Society has successfully appealed against calls to withdraw their charitable status after they refused to place children with same-sex couples.
In January last year the Office of the Scottish Charity Regular (OSCR) began reviewing the Glasgow-based adoption agency after the National Secular Society claimed they were breaching the Equality Act 2010.
Closure reversed
The OSCR concluded that the adoption agency’s charitable status should be stripped, but the decision was reversed by the Scottish Charity Appeals panel.
In response to successfully winning their appeal a St Margaret’s spokesman said:
"We are delighted and relieved that the threat hanging over us has been lifted. Our only wish is to continue to do the good work for which we have been recognised by the authorities, of placing children in need of families with loving parents."
Grateful for decision
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, president of St Margaret's, added: "We are grateful for this wise decision. It means that families who are ready to adopt can look forward to the future with a little more serenity, and children in great need can be placed into loving homes.
"St Margaret's is a small agency which does great work for the wider community and helps transform the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in society. It would have been have been a great pity if it had been forced to close."
St Margaret's is one of several Catholic adoption agencies who have been facing the threat of closure following the new equality laws.
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