A nearly century-old adoption program
is shutting down in New York after it received a same-sex couple’s application
that would have required it to betray its beliefs about sexuality in order to maintain
its contract with the government.
Last week, Catholic Charities of
Buffalo said in a press release that it was phasing out its 95-year-old foster care
and adoption services because it could not “simultaneously comply with state
regulations and conform to the teaching of the Catholic Church on the nature of
marriage.” In a statement, Catholic
Charities CEO, Dennis Walczyk, explained that the couple’s application put them
in a difficult position given the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage. “That situation put us in a position where we
were in conflict in doing so with the teachings of the Catholic Church as far
as what the Church recognizes as a marriage,” he said.
The Catholic Catechism not only
condemns homosexuality, it identifies marriage as the union between a man and a
woman. “Basing itself on Sacred
Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition
has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered,’” the
Catechism reads. It adds that “under no
circumstances” can those acts be “approved.”
Sister Mary McCarrick, the diocesan
director for Catholic Charities, cited the Church’s teaching when she explained
the organization’s preference for serving heterosexual couples. “It is important and to the advantage of a
child to be placed in a home with a husband and wife family, a man and a woman,
so that the child can experience both a father and a mother, and their love,”
McCarrick said, according to The Buffalo
News.
McCarrick, the Christian Post reported, said that the recent application created
an insurmountable obstacle which the organization apparently never faced in the
years after New York passed its anti-discrimination law in 2003. “We were in a[n] incontrovertible controversy
between what the state is expecting — that we would be without prejudice —
foster and adopt with couples that are same sex, and the Catholic Church
teaching this is not a marital couple,” she said when asked why the
organization was just now ending its foster program.
New York’s Office of Children and
Family Services (OCFS), which licenses Catholic Charities, made clear that the organization’s
actions constituted a form of illicit discrimination under state law. “Discrimination of any kind is illegal and in
this case OCFS will vigorously enforce the laws designed to protect the rights
of children and same sex couples,” spokeswoman, Monica Mahaffey, said.
Walczyk indicated that his adoption
service would coordinate with state and local officials to ensure a smooth
transition for foster children and their foster parents. “We are working with the state OCFS and Erie County
DSS to support a smooth transition for children in foster care and foster
parents, as well as those who have submitted applications to provide foster care
or seek adoption," he said.
Mark Poloncarz, the county’s
executive, warned the agency’s closure could put foster children at risk. “Unfortunately, presently there are not
enough individuals to foster and adopt children in Erie County, and this decision
could further harm our efforts to place children in caring, loving families,”
Poloncarz said.
Buffalo’s was just the latest of many
Catholic adoption agencies to shut down or face that prospect in light of
anti-discrimination laws. Both Catholic
Charities of Boston and the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., shuttered their
adoption services while facing similar situations as Catholic Charities of
Buffalo.
When several states considered laws
that would protect religious organizations from facilitating same-sex adoption,
advocates like the Human Rights Campaign fiercely condemned their efforts. Same-sex adoption advocates have argued that
religious restrictions unnecessarily block foster children from finding
suitable homes. Others, however, have
argued that anti-discrimination policies allow the state to coerce religious
individuals to compromise their conscience and force charitable organizations
to shut down.
Earlier this year, the president of
the nonpartisan National Council for Adoption warned that same-sex adoption
requirements would ultimately leave foster children with fewer resources. “To eliminate faith-based agencies from the
field of service over ideology, to take away their licenses, which is happening
in states, to prevent them from entering into contracts to provide these
services for public entities ..., it is going to end up with seeing fewer
resources for children in foster care and children will go un-adopted.” While Chuck Johnson, the organization’s
president, supported same-sex adoption, he wasn’t sure how pushing out
faith-based agencies was “in anyone’s best interest.”
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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