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Once a Catholic?

Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) has won its case in the High Court forcing the Charity Commission to review its decision that the adoption charity could not be allowed to discriminate against gay couples by virtue of an exemption from equalities legislation. The Bishop of Leeds, the Right Reverend Arthur Roche, said that ‘without being able to use the exemption, children without families would be seriously disadvantaged’. Some people will find this hard to swallow coming from an institution that has for decades refused to acknowledge or properly deal with the child abuse crimes of its clergy without any apparent regard to the emotional well-being of the young victims. However, it does focus on an important and difficult area of law where the rights of the individual to hold and act on a belief come up against the rights of people not to be discriminated against. In what many people say is an

increasingly secular world, some ask how much weight can realistically be placed upon what they see as irrational or even superstitious beliefs. Others suggest that when establishing where to draw the line between religious freedom and other peoples’ rights we should look at the funds involved because, they argue, state funding should not be available for discriminatory practices, even those which are faith based (an argument rejected in the Catholic Care case). The charitable status of religious organisations was debated for centuries before the arrival of the Human Rights Act. Given the large number of religious charities, conflicts like those underlying the Jewish Free School and the Catholic Care cases are unlikely to diminish and will be a constant thorn in the side of the Charity Commission. But should being good at delivering

a difficult service mean you can blackmail the law into accomodating your bigotry? Or has the time come for the Commission to redouble its efforts to identify harm in the context of the

public benefit of religious charities and weed out those that seek to circumvent the law?

Protection from pensions

While the Catholic Church is using the courts to confirm its god-given right to pursue its homophobic doctrines, it is also the courts that are likely to be asked to determine who will take the blast when another more home-made time bomb explodes. Pension shortfalls are becoming

a major issue for some charities as the negative effects of poor investment returns are compounded by ever- extending life expectancies. Trustees who have tried to do the right thing by their staff are now finding that the liability this has created is looming up to swallow them whole, lock stock and clubhouse. In some circumstances individual trustees of unincorporated associations are being asked to find large sums as a result of section 75 demands triggered by circumstances beyond their control. The sums involved are arbitrary, calculated as they are by a set of assumptions that could be very significantly wrong in either direction. Nonetheless, they are invariably large and beyond the pockets of most individuals. And charities with limited liability are

little better off. How long will the public continue to give generously when they discover that their donations may be going to make up seemingly endless pension scheme shortfalls? Inevitably, there will be calls on the

courts to balance the rights of future charity beneficiaries against current pension liabilities. This is going to be painful in some instances as difficult choices are made. And it may lead to much more fundraising for restricted purposes so that the funds cannot be siphoned off to meet pension fund demands – exactly the opposite of what most charities would like.

Editor

Daniel Phelan

020 7819 1200

daniel.phelan@civilsociety.co.uk

Senior reporter

Gareth Jones

gareth.jones@civilsociety.co.uk

Reporter

Vibeka Mair

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Additional reporting

Celina Ribeiro Stefan Marseglia

Group editor

Tania Mason

tania.mason@civilsociety.co.uk

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Phil Bishop

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Charity Finance April 2010

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