Catholic Charities: Adoption Services 'Imperiled' By Civil Union Legislation

So, yesterday Colorado legislators sent a Civil Union bill to the governor for signature. Nice, yes, but I am not a fan of Civil Unions as they seem very marriage-lite to me, like crumbs from the Straights Only table, meant to placate The Gays so maybe, just maybe, we won’t ask for full equality.

Now, before you all go crazy, I understand that passing a Civil Unions bill can be a step toward full marriage equality, it’s just that it still strikes me as less than: Oh no, we’re not “married,” were “civilly united.”

Doesn’t have the same ring to it, you know? But, this post isn’t about Colorado or Civil Unions or even my personal opinion of either. It’s about those religious adoption agencies—and I’m looking especially at you, Catholic Charities—that began wondering how the new legislation would affect their religious beliefs, and how they might still be able to discriminate against The Gays.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Denver expressed “disappointment” in the Colorado Legislature, stating that if signed into law, the bill “may threaten the policies which guide us in the vital work to find families for Colorado’s children in need.”

See, because they might have to allow children to be adopted by gay couples, and we all know The Gays can’t be trusted with children. There’s indoctrination and pedophilia and …. Oh, wait, no, that the Catholic Church and their handling of children.

The new Civil Union does not provide exceptions to religious institutions wishing to withhold adoptions based on sexual orientation, a decision that House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, said would be “discriminatory.” Ferrandino sponsored the bill and is caring for a foster daughter with his longtime partner in hopes of adopting her—one of more than 650 children currently seeking homes in the state’s foster system.

“There are hundreds of LGBT couples who want to raise kids, and these kids who are in the foster system have for some reason been taken away from their biological parents for abuse or neglect. What they need more than anything is a family who loves them and wants to raise them. We should not deny them the opportunity to have two loving parents, be they two women, two men, or a man and a woman.”—Mark Ferrandino

The Reverend Samuel Aqulia, archbishop of Denver, refuted Ferrandino’s stance on religious exemptions, adding that while the Catholic Church “recognizes and affirms the dignity of every human person,” it does not view all relationships as equal.

Which, um, forgive me if I’m wrong, Padre, means you don’t believe in the dignity of every person, I mean, if that person is gay.

“The ability for religious-based institutions to provide foster care and adoption services for Colorado’s children is now dangerously imperiled. Marriage is a stabilizing institution at the foundation of civil society. Religious liberty is a civil rights issue. Both have been grievously harmed.”—The Reverend Samuel Aqulia

How, exactly, is it imperiled? How is keeping children in orphanages and foster care facilities better than allowing them to be adopted by loving couples in a committed relationship who choose to raise, nurture, educate and love a child? How is a gay couple’s parenting style, and skills, any less than those of a heterosexual couple?

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Catholic Charities spokeswoman Tracy Murphy has said the group will not announce any concrete decision regarding adoption services in Colorado until the civil unions bill is signed into law, but the group previously threatened to withdraw adoption services to anyone, anyone, in Colorado if the legislation did not include religious exemptions that would allow them to withhold adoptions from gay couples.

Better to punish children, I’m guessing, than to allow a gay couple the joy of parenting. But then that’s what the Catholic Church does; it punishes children by keeping them in foster care, in orphanages, when they are parents willing to take them in; it punishes children by allowing them to be raped and molested by priests who then get passed around and paid off and protected, all the whole a Pope—even new Pope Franky—wears Prada and jewels and sits on a golden throne.

How does that serve children?

Again ….

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