The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has said adoption agencies will close if they cannot opt out of new gay rights laws.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has written to Cabinet ministers saying church teaching prevented its agencies placing children with homosexuals.

Forcing people to act against their consciences would mean discrimination on the grounds of belief, he added.

No 10 said Tony Blair had not decided whether to exempt Catholic agencies.

'Sensitivities'

His official spokesman said it was an issue with "sensitivities on all sides" that was still being discussed within government.

The spokesman said: "This is not a straightforward black and white issue.

"The cardinal's letter illustrates the sensitivities on one side but there are also sensitivities on the other side. We need to plot a way through that recognises the interests of children but also gets us through."

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly, a devout Catholic, was reported at the weekend to be considering an opt-out which would cover Catholic adoption agencies.

The Equality Act, which has already been delayed once, but is now due to come into effect in England, Wales and Scotland in April, outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation.

'Tragedy'

It works in a similar way to rules on sex and race discrimination.

However, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said Roman Catholic teaching about the foundations of family life ruled out the choice of homosexual adoptive parents.

The view about discrimination is one that's been taken by the country as a whole

Lord Falconer


In full: Cardinal's letter

He said the closure of seven agencies would represent a wholly avoidable "tragedy".

In his letter, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said: "We believe it would be unreasonable, unnecessary and unjust discrimination against Catholics for the government to insist that if they wish to continue to work with local authorities, Catholic adoption agencies must act against the teaching of the Church and their own consciences by being obliged in law to provide such a service."

The Catholic Church's agencies are said to handle 4%, or about 200, of all adoptions a year. However they handle about a third of those children judged difficult to place.

Opposition

The Independent on Sunday claimed Ms Kelly was battling to allow Catholic adoption agencies to turn away same-sex couples.

It reported that she had the backing of Mr Blair, who is not Catholic but whose wife is and whose children went to a Catholic school, but faced opposition from other senior colleagues.

In response to that report, her department said "no decisions" had been taken on the detailed rules.

Ms Kelly told the Commons last October that the new law, which had been expected to come into force then, would be delayed until April, because of 3,000 responses to a consultation.

She also said her own religion would not prevent her from tackling discrimination, including that against homosexuals.

A number of ministers spoke out against an opt-out following the weekend reports.

And Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday: "Each individual adoption agency must make its judgement on the basis on which it places a child - and the child's interests are paramount - but if we take the view as a society that we should not discriminate against people who are homosexual, you cannot give exclusions for people on the grounds that their religion or their race says we don't agree with that.

"The view about discrimination is one that's been taken by the country as a whole."

Labour MP Angela Eagle told BBC Radio 4's T