.- The
prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has said
Catholic social service agencies should not place children with
same-sex couples.
In light of
this, the Archdiocese of San Francisco is currently reviewing its
practice of permitting homosexuals and lesbians to adopt children
through its local Catholic Charities.
Maurice Healy, a
spokesman for the archdiocese, said the decision to review the policy
came after Archbishop William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith said that bishops must not permit children to
be adopted by same-sex couples.
Healy contacted
Archbishop Levada at the Vatican after a Boston Globe journalist asked
him if the former archbishop of San Francisco had permitted gay
adoptions and if the archdiocese would continue to do so after the
bishops of Massachusetts decided to forbid them.
The bishops of
Massachusetts cited Church teaching in their recent decision to no
longer permit Catholic social service agencies to place children with
same-sex couples. They said they planned to seek an exemption from
state anti-discrimination policy.
In his e-mail
response to Healy, Archbishop Levada acknowledged that Catholic
Charities San Francisco had allowed three “difficult to place” children
to be placed with same-sex couples during his 10-year tenure there. He
explained these placements involved “prudential judgments” about the
children’s needs, Church teaching, and the agency’s mission.
He added,
however, that a 2003 Vatican document clearly indicates that “Catholic
agencies should not place children for adoption in homosexual
households.”
“The reasons
given in the document, as well as the potential scandal for the
faithful should an archdiocesan agency act contrary to the clear
teaching of the Church's Magisterium, require that a Catholic bishop
follow this clear guidance from the Holy See in his oversight of
Catholic diocesan agencies,” he wrote.
Prior to receiving the archbishop’s e-mail, Healy had defended the practice of allowing gay adoptions in a Globe interview.
Prefect says Catholic agencies should not allow gay adoptions, San Francisco reconsiders policy
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