New rules requiring religious adoption agencies to accept gay couples as adoptive parents are due to be debated in the House of Lords.
Church leaders say Parliament has not had enough time to debate the changes, part of the new Equality Act.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the most senior Catholic in England and Wales, said it "remains to be seen" whether the church will co-operate.

But the government insists discrimination should not be tolerated.

Combat discrimination

The Catholic church sought earlier this year to persuade ministers not to bring the regulations - passed in the Commons last year - into force.

"What we're dealing with is a crucial question indeed for democracy in this country" Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor

They said they would have to shut adoption agencies, which handle some of the most difficult-to-place children, rather than act contrary to their beliefs.

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Cardinal Murphy O'Connor said the church had the interests of children at heart.

"The Catholic church wishes to abide by its principles that the best way - or the best manner - is to place them with a family, with a father and with a mother," he said.

"What we're dealing with is a crucial question indeed for democracy in this country because it highlights the part that is played by voluntary agencies for the public good."

The Bishop of Winchester, the Right Reverend Michael Scott-Joynt, has said the rights of gay people have been allowed to trump those of others.

The Church of England's General Synod has written to bishops in the Lords asking them to oppose the measures.

But the government insists standard parliamentary procedure has been followed, and argues the reforms are necessary to combat discrimination.

The Equality Act is due to come into effect in England, Wales and Scotland in April.

It outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation.

'No exemption'

After reports of heated battles in Cabinet, the government announced it would push ahead with bringing the regulations into force without an exemption for faith-based adoption agencies.

Although there was no exemption, Tony Blair said religious agencies would be given a 21 month transitional period to prepare for the new laws.

He said the hope was that extra time would allow expertise and knowledge to be passed onto the secular sector, rather than being lost altogether.

A similar attempt in the Lords to overturn similar laws in Northern Ireland failed earlier this year.

Courtesy of the BBC