This is an interesting news day as regards to Catholic Charities and allowing adoptions to homosexual couples. Lots of information coming via Domenico Bettinelli.
First the Boston Globe contacted Maurice Healy a spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco about if Catholic Charities there was going to continue to allow adoptions to homosexual couples in light of what was going on with Catholic Charities in Boston. They in turn emailed their former bishop and now head of the CDF about this. Cardinal-designate Levada then replied:
In his e-mail, Levada acknowledged that he had been told by Brian Cahill, executive director of Catholic Charities in San Francisco, that three ”difficult to place" children were adopted by gay parents there. Levada said those placements involved ”prudential judgments" about the needs of the children, church teachings, and the mission of the agency.
However, in the e-mail he said a 2003 Vatican document makes clear that ”Catholic agencies should not place children for adoption in homosexual households."
”The reasons given in the document, as well as the potential scandal for the faithful should an archdiocesan agency act contrary to the clear teaching of the church’s magisterium, require that a Catholic bishop follow this clear guidance from the Holy See in his oversight of Catholic diocesan agencies," he wrote.
The next part is pretty funny.
Hours before receiving Levada’s e-mail, in an interview with the Globe, the spokesman for the San Francisco Archdiocese had defended the practice of allowing gay adoptions.
In response to the email you get the reply you would expect.
”We’ll be reviewing it," said Maurice Healy, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Believe it or not that is a step in the right direction. Because I think when this document came out in 2003 from the CDF on the subject the reply then was "We’ll be ignoring it."
Which brings us to the next story.
BOSTON –The Boston Archdiocese’s Catholic Charities said Friday it would stop providing adoption services because state law allows gays and lesbians to adopt children.
Now the official statement of Catholic Charities in Boston has about as much bite as a man who has misplaced hid dentures, but hey when it comes to the right decision we will take what is given.
…But now, we have encountered a dilemma we cannot resolve. In spite of much effort and analysis, Catholic Charities of Boston finds that it cannot reconcile the teaching of the Church, which guides our work, and the statutes and regulations of the Commonwealth. The issue is adoption to same-sex couples, and we realize that for many it is a sensitive, deeply felt issue of conscience.
Now? Of course Catholic Charities there has been providing adoptions to same-sex couples for some time so exactly what does that have to do with the new state law? The new law really only asks them to continue what they were already doing. No this is just a pretext for them because they were hopefully being pressured by the diocese to stop this practice. The instruction from the CDF came out three years ago. This is nothing new and the questions raised on this subject were authoritatively answered by then Cardinal Ratzinger. But with seven people resigning from the board of Catholic Charities last week maybe the heterodoxy load on the board has shifted.
Dom thinks that the statement "lacks enthusiasm for the Gospel" and I am inclined to agree. Now that Archbishop Sean O’Malley has also issued a statement and it looks like that criticism still applies (as Dom also noted). Another teaching moment wasted. With all of the attention that will be focused on this news it would have been great to see a statement that accurately advanced the Catholic teaching in regards to this subject. We will soon be bombarded with even more stories calling the Church homophobic where the Church’s position will be mischaracterized, so it would be nice to see it accurately stated at least one time in the coming media storm.
Regardless the right action is now happening in Boston. Hopefully it will result in the legislature finally granting a religious exemption to this law. But this is the exact stance that must be done time and time again with the state orders that we must cooperate with evil. There will be only more such cases as time advances and the culture regresses.
14 comments
Ever since the priest scandal hit Boston there has been a national and local case of amnesia on the Congressman Studds case. Remember him??? He plied with alchohol and bedded down an altar boy aged page. The local media made Studds a hero(for dissing Congress). Then Congress let him back in (as a bishop moving around a bad priest) and the voters went Rah! Rah! Rah! with landlides for the abuser. No wonder so many people want to give little boys to “model citizens” such as our local former Congressman. They are abuser enablers.
Where’s the love here? Where’s the Christian charity? Catholic Charities of Boston has been providing adoption services since 1903. That’s 103 years. In that time exactly three (3) children have been placed with same-sex couples. Three hard-to-place children. To say they have been “providing adoptions to same-sex couples for some time” doesn’t give us a true picture, does it? As for Archbishop O’Malley’s statement, I haven’t read it yet (the link doesn’t work) but I know this man has been through hell the past two years, he a humble, kind, generous, holy man whose primary impulse is charity and love. He is villified almost daily by The Boston GLobe and homosexual activists and has to pick his way through a virtual minefield in his public statements. His style is NOT confrontation. Let’s cut him some slack, okay?
I am so disgusted that the catholic church, with its history of destruction, lies and child rape, is kowtowing to the Nazi in the vatican again. Shame on this messed-up bunch of Catholic losers. I am so glad my family left the evil church 3 years ago, after our priest was exposed as aliar and pedophile. Hyprocrites.
“We’ll be reviewing it” ???
What’s to review!
Michael green-
that’s quite a lot of anger you’re dealing with here. do you not realize that you sound like a hypocrite, as you curse us without knowing us?
The pope is not a Nazi- he never was. He lived in a place where there were Nazis, just as much as the Jews lived in a place where there were Nazis. I believe that when he was drafted for the Hitler Youth, he abandoned it and never did anything, if my history is correct.
secondly, your priest was being a hypocrite when he committed those acts against Christ. but you cannot judge him, nor can you judge the entire Church based on several peoples’ flaws- we are ALL flawed, and all need redemption. only Christ can judge. as he said, let the one who has not sinned throw the first stone.
lastly, this issue is between you and God. Ask Him to show you the Truth, because if you ask, you will find it. God has already shown you that these sinful actions are against Him- but did He show you that the Church is at fault? Do you know what the Church teaches? people struggle with sinful desires, and it takes those who are truly dedicated to God to throw them off, and only because they gave up everything to follow Him- out of love.
I love you, and God loves you, and I pray in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, that you may find the truth and the peace and love of God. Just because you are angry with the actions of Satan on society does not mean you should hate the sinners, nor the Church. Hate evil, not the sinner. God sees His Son in everyone, which is why He continues to have mercy on them. While they who sin are still alive, they have a chance to repent. Please, don’t be angry with the Church, and especially don’t be angry with God. That is a terrible sin, and all sins break God’s heart. It is hypocritical to condemn others, as though you were God Himself, then commit your own sins.
Once again, I love you, and Jesus loves you, and in His name, I pray that you find truth, peace, and love in Him.
Correction: Catholic Charities in Boston has placed 13 children with homosexual couples, not 3 as I said. Sorry.
To Michael Green: Pathetic, sir; truly pathetic. I hope for your sake, your hate and bigotry doesn’t completely overcome you.
the well-being of children who need homes is less important than continuing the Catholic crusade against homosexuals, all the tim encouraging encouraging mass child rape amongst its deviant, nazi-led clergy
I think we have a first class troll on our hands who needs to be sent back under his bridge.
“Your priest was being a hypocrite….but you cannot judge him” as in, only I can judge him?
Michael Green –you can damn the Church all you want for taking a stand against homosexualism. But I am personally strongly opposed to not turning children over to gays because I used to work for a state agency here in Mass. In one incident I was asked to investigate a home where a man and his mother wanted to be care -givers for young boys. I turned down the home and wrote down in my report -honestly-I thought the man was too eager to have a little boy in his house and I suspected from some things he said that he was homosexual.
Now this was in the early years of the Gay Dictatorship in this state. I kept my job, but my report was overruled as being “homophobic” and a boy was placed in the home. Only a few months later the boy was abused there.
The Church is trying to rid itself-as the pope said- of such filth in the priesthood. What M. Green are YOU doing to rid our society, culture, or state of such “filth.”
Sorry— I type with one finger and too fast -I am personally OPPOSED to turning children over to gays or to put it the way I originally intended I am NOT in favor of turning children over to gays….
Smart thinking, bishops: Church opposes abortion, closes doors on Catholic-sponsored adoption. Now what do they suggest should happen to an “unwanted” child?
I’ve been on the board of a lay-run Catholic non-profit private adoption agency for years and know that those who follow the highest ethical principles in this often very dirty business are few and far between. When we hit hard financial times, Catholic Charities turned us down for support because we, too, have wound up placing a handful of children with same sex couples as the law in our state requires. You hold your nose and do it, praying that the social workers have correctly determined that the placement is in the best interests of the child.
How can you preach pro-life and not do everything you can to provide that life a welcoming home? I love my Church, but it gets harder and harder with each short-sighted decision the hierarchy makes. The lobbying for a “conscience” exemption should have been done when the legislation to extend such rights to gays was proposed in the first instance. I’ll bet that at the time the bishops’ reaction, if anything, was muted, polite and deferential to our homosexual brothers and sisters in Christ, who are now gleefully stomping on Catholic moral principles.
One thing for certain–all the promises made by liberal -mostly Dem.- politicians that giving priviledged status to homosexuals in the law would not affect any religion or religious believers in any way, shape, or manner was just so much pig manure. It is now the liberal Democrat liars and frauds who are loudly spreading around more pig manure to make sure no exemptions from the Mass. Gay Dictatorship are given to religions–to hell with the First Amendment genuine “privilege” and protection given to religion and religious believers.
It’s too easy to fall into emotionalism on this issue: poor little kids who won’t be given homes…poor little gays who won’t be able to experience the joy of being parents. But emotionalism obscures the real issue: will it be in the best interest of the child to be adopted by a gay couple?