MassMarrier beat me to it: he says just about everything that needs to be said about Catholic Charities’ announcement that, rather than abide by the state law barring discrimination against gay couples in adoptions, they will stop handling adoptions all together.
Catholic Charities itself, of course, did not want this outcome (I’ll say it again – the board voted unanimously not long ago to continue serving gay couples who wished to adopt), but it apparently had no choice but to knuckle under to the bishops.
And listen to the stunningly backward logic of Mitt Romney, who has now said he will file a bill to create a religious exemption from the anti-discrimination law:
“This is a sad day for neglected and abandoned children. It’s a mistake for our laws to put the rights of adults over the needs of children.”
Well, we can agree that it’s a sad day for neglected and abandond children. But who is it, exactly, that is putting the “rights of adults” over the “needs of children”? It is, of course, the bishops themselves, who obviously think it is more important to exercise their alleged “right” to refuse to serve gay people than it is to serve children who need homes.
Honestly, this is completely insane, isn’t it? The same Church that feels so strongly about protecting unborn children that it would sooner see a woman suffer grave physical damage, or bear a rapist’s child, than allow a pregnancy to be terminated, would sooner see an already-born child languish in foster care than be placed with two people who desperately want to give that child a loving home. I can understand (if not agree with) the Church’s position on abortion. But I cannot, and do not, understand how that position can be reconciled with its stance on adoption.
This reminds me of the decision of the United Way to drop the Salvation Army from its supported organizations.
<
p>
Nobody questioned the work that the SA did and does, but United Way wanted them to gather data on who was being served, names, income, etc.
<
p>
The Army said that since 1843, they had helped people, no questons asked, and they weren’t going to begin now.
<
p>
So they were excluded.
<
p>
Sometimes, faith based organizations should be allowed to operate within the parameters of their faith.
<
p>
As far as Cathoic Charities goes, I am not a Catholic, but this decision is incomprehensible. They had already placed children with gay coples and individuals in the past – so what changed exactly to force this crisis?
My understanding is that the Vatican pulled rank on Catholic Charities to make sure that they were toeing the Church line on homosexuality. (Thanks to Pope Benedict the Hardliner.) Heaven knows the Catholic church wouldn’t want to be seen as being hypocritical or anything.
Cherishing human life, which begins at conception, means protecting it from homosexuality. What I find hard to understand is the ability to put an abstraction — the theoretical benefit to humankind from opposing homosexuality — ahead of the observable benefit to neglected children of being placed in a loving home. I don’t think Christ would approve of this policy.