Catholic Charities in Boston Archdiocese to end adoption services

Published: 2006-03-13

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic Charities of the Boston Archdiocese announced March 10 that it will stop providing adoption services rather than continue to comply with a state law requiring no discrimination against gay and lesbian couples who seek to adopt. The same day Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called it "a mistake for our laws to put the rights of adults over the needs of children" and said he would seek legislation allowing religious agencies to perform adoptions without violating their religious tenets. Prompted by a similar issue arising at Catholic Charities of San Francisco, a top Vatican official has said Catholic agencies should not be involved in adoptions by same-sex couples. "We have encountered a dilemma we cannot resolve," said Father J. Bryan Hehir, Boston Catholic Charities president, and Jeffrey Kaneb, chairman of the board of trustees, in a joint statement March 10. They said the agency "cannot reconcile the teaching of the church, which guides our work, and the statutes and regulations of the commonwealth," under which archdiocesan adoptive services had placed 13 children with same-sex couples over the past 20 years. A 2003 Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith document says it would be "gravely immoral" to let same-sex couples adopt children.

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