World News
District's same-sex marriage bill could limit work of church agencies
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Recent news reports have mistakenly claimed that the Archdiocese of Washington and its social service arm, Catholic Charities, are threatening to stop providing social services if the District of Columbia City Council's proposed same-sex marriage bill passes, said Auxiliary Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Washington. "Catholic Charities is vowing to continue its services even if a same-sex marriage bill passes," he wrote in a recent open letter to local Catholics posted on the Web site of the Catholic Standard, Washington's archdiocesan newspaper. Bishop Knestout said the level of services will not be the same though, because "without a meaningful religious exemption in the bill, Catholic Charities and other similar religious providers will become ineligible for contracts, grants and licenses to continue those services." Archdiocesan officials and other religious leaders in the district have said if the council is going to pass the measure despite their objections, then it must have a strong protections for religious conscience. Catholic Charities currently serves 68,000 people in the city, including one-third of Washington's homeless.
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