I tried to resist, honestly I tried, but then Fr. Joe Borg wrote another blog about single adoptions, and here I am fuming.

For those not in the loop of this saga please refer to www.alisonbezzina.com for a summary, as well as Fr. Joe Borg's most recent blog entitled The rights of children are Supreme on this website.

Ugggh! Where do I start?

1. No one hung the sister who took the decision...because she didn't. She was never even mentioned in my blogs, or anywhere else that I can recall.

2. Archbishop Cremona might have suggested (just) a preference for married couples over singles, but it was implemented as a 'BAN' on ALL single adoptions not as a preference.

This is a quote from The Foundation for Social Welfare Services (Feb 2012) in reply to my questions - "With regards to Ethiopia, the country's laws DO NOT refuse adoptions by Maltese single parents. However, the contact through which Maltese are adopting in Ethiopia is currently accepting COUPLES ONLY."

3. Fr. Borg says that he will only change his opinion if and when someone presents the results of reliable studies which show that the adoption (by gay couples) in particular situations would be in the best interests of the children.

We could be throwing research studies at each other all day and never get anywhere, but is it possible that they all these countries which have already legalised full joint adoption by same sex couples, are ALL acting against the interest of children?

- Andorra(2005), Argentina(2010), Belgium, Brazil(2010), Canada(1999), Denmark(2010), Iceland (2006), Netherlands (2001), Norway (2009), South Africa (2002), Spain (2005), Sweden (2002), United Kingdom: England and Wales (2005), Scotland (2009) and Northern Ireland and Uruguay (2009). Australia: Western Australia (2002), Australian Capital Territory (2004), and New South Wales (2010).Mexico: Mexico City (2010) and Coahuila. United States: the District of Columbia (1995), New Jersey (1998), New York (2002), Indiana (2006), Maine (2007),California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, Florida....the list goes on.

4. Fr. Borg asks - Are not those who run the orphanage those acting in loco parentis and thus have the duty and the right to decide what is best to those under their care? I'm not sure about them having the 'right' to decide something that goes against the law (of two countries), but let's say they do for argument's sake. Then don't people who do not agree with their ways have the right to create what he patronisingly calls a storm in a teacup?

5. While there is no internationally recognised human right to adopt, Maltese legislation expressly grants single persons the right to apply for adoption and establishes a procedure to that end. Accordingly, such a situation falls within the ambit of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (Rome 1950 which Malta ratified in April 1967). Consequently, the State, which has gone beyond its obligations under Article 8 (right to respect for private life) in creating such a right – a possibility open to it under Article 53 of the Convention – cannot, in the application of that right, take discriminatory measures within the meaning of Article 14 (non- discrimination clause) (see, E.B. vs France, ECHR judgment of 22 January 2008). In the French case, the European Court of Human Rights found that, in rejecting the applicant's application for authorisation to adopt by making a distinction based on considerations regarding her sexual orientation, the French state had breached the applicant's human rights.

6. Fr. Borg says that because he is single himself he tends to empathize with such rights. With all due respect to Fr. Joe, I'd imagine that upon joining the priesthood he had consciously given up on the possibility of ever fathering a child, so frankly I don't think he can empathize at all, and his calling this issue a non-debate and a storm in tea cup, just proves my point further.

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