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Boston Catholic Charities Board Members Resign over Church Defence of Children

by Hilary White

BOSTON, February 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Seven members of the board of Catholic Charities of Boston have resigned in “outrage” over the Catholic Church’s opposition to homosexual adoption. The Massachusetts bishops are in the midst of a legal battle to have the Catholic Church exempted on grounds of religious freedom from the state law that says homosexuals must be allowed to adopt children.

In a unanimous vote in December, the 42-member board of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston refused to accede to the request by Archbishop Sean O’Malley and the Catholic Conference of Massachusetts to cease including homosexual partners as adoptive parents.

President of Catholic Charities in Boston, Rev. Brian H. Hehir, a prominent academic and social liberal, said at the time that the board’s decision to continue placing children with homosexual partners was taken in order to allow Catholic Charities to continue, within the state law, to find loving, normal families for needy children.

“If we could design the system ourselves, we would not participate in adoptions to gay couples, but we can't,” said Hehir. “We have to balance various goods.” The Catholic Church, however, has repeatedly made it clear that there is no “good” to be found in either allowing children to be placed with homosexual partners, or in lending legitimacy to the homosexual “lifestyle.” A document from the Vatican said plainly that homosexual adoption is a form of child abuse.

Now, however, the board is being more straightforward about its dedication to the homosexual agenda. Seven members of the board are resigning because, they say, the Massachusetts bishops’ opposition to homosexual adoptions, “threatens the very essence of our Christian mission.”

“(We) cannot participate in an effort to pursue legal permission to discriminate against Massachusetts citizens who want to play their part in building strong families,” the resigning board members’ statement said.

Boston’s Archbishop Sean O’Malley and Rev. Hehir met with Governor Romney who has said that he wants Catholic Charities to be able to continue doing adoptions in a way that does not conflict with Catholic principles. Romney has also said, however, that he cannot waive the state law with an executive order and doubts that legal means can be found for an exemption.

The homosexual activist organization, the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston, the same group that successfully used the courts to have the state recognize homosexual partnerings as legal marriage, said they are poised to attack the Bishops if the state grants them an exemption.

In November, 2005, O’Malley wrote a pastoral letter in which he eloquently defended the teaching of the Church on homosexuality. He wrote, “Sometimes we are told: 'If you do not accept my behavior, you do not love me.' In reality we must communicate the exact opposite: 'Because we love you, we cannot accept your behavior.”

Boston Archdiocese Includes Gay “Couples” in Catholic Charities Adoptions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05102405.html

Boston Archbishop Says Pro-Abortion Politicians "Shouldn't Dare Come to Communion"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jan/04012301.html

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