LAST year, some 2,900 children were adopted in this country, and of that number four per cent are said to have been handled by Catholic adoption agencies.

Such figures are worth keeping in mind when listening to the furious debate stirred up by the gay adoption row. To recap, the Government wishes to adopt equal adoption rights for gay couples, and the proposed legislation to arrange this has led to an overheated row with the Roman Catholic Church.

In brief, if you will allow the colloquialism, the Catholics have said that if the law comes in, they're not playing any more and will be taking their bat home. Or, if you prefer the words of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of Catholics in England, Catholic adoption agencies would be forced to close down rather than "act against their consciences".

Oh, here we go again. The Catholic Church does like to stamp its feet over these issues. It has already used the same kind of emotional blackmail to force the Government to backtrack on faith school quotas. Now it is carrying on again - and the Government should stand firm.

As Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, says: "We need to ask who is running this country - the Government or the Vatican?"

As you might expect, the Cardinal and co like to call on the Bible as back-up, insisting that if the Good Book says homosexuality is a sin, then their conscience won't allow gay adoptions. As I understand it, and I am light years away from being an expert, you can find evidence for just about anything you want in the Bible.

To a secular soul such as myself, this issue seems to be about religion versus humanity.

Common humanity, as well as common sense, should tell us that there are not many gay adoptions, and that, besides, gay couples can be dedicated and good parents. So what has happened here, as so often before, is that the Catholic Church is peering down the wrong end of the telescope, to look at something small and render it large.

The Catholic Church always has trouble navigating the s-word, and any mention of sex, unless connected with procreation, can bring it out in a righteous rash. Oh well, we should be used to that by now - much as, incidentally, we grow sadly accustomed to those occasional stories about sexually abusive priests.

Catholic adoption agencies are said to be good at finding families for the difficult-to-place children, and this is clearly a valuable skill.

What a tragedy, then, that its overheated behaviour could put such vulnerable children at risk, all because of a bout of religious foot-stomping.

What a pity, too, that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have weighed into the row by supporting the Catholic Church. Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu have written to Tony Blair, warning that the issue threatened to polarise opinion and was putting the personal conscience of Christians at risk.

Dr John is a charismatic man, an inspiration to many, but he does try the patience sometimes. Here is he again, weighing in with another view which appears to come from the religious right.

As to Catholics and adoption, it would be too easy and too unkind for the secular person to say that the fewer children brought up adhering to weird Catholic doctrine, the better.

Personal experience, via friends, teaches me that this isn't necessarily so. But it is still a stubborn thought.

Funnily enough, this week has also seen the controversial religious sect Opus Dei accusing the BBC of portraying its members as "murderers, thieves and adulterers" in Waking The Dead.

The secretive Catholic organisation has lodged an official complaint of defamation, of all the ridiculous things. Why can't they just grow up and get on with the world. It's only a TV programme - a seriously silly, but well-made and engaging piece of entertainment.

What links these two issues? Oh, once again religion is punching above its weight in this country, and we all get dragged in.