Boston, Mass., Oct 24, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Catholic Charities in Boston has allowed 13 out of 720 foster children to be adopted by same-sex couples in the past two decades, saying state regulations prohibit the agency from discriminating against same-sex couples.
''If we could design the system ourselves, we would not participate in adoptions to gay couples, but we can't," the group’s president, Fr. J. Bryan Hehir, told the Boston Globe.
The Oct. 22 report said the adoptions took place as of 1987 as part of a contract with the state Department of Social Services. The children placed with the same-sex couples are among those most difficult to place, either because they have physical or emotional problems or they are older.
Hehir described the decision to permit these adoptions as a legal accommodation in the name of a greater social good. He said if they did not comply with the state's nondiscrimination clause, they would not be able to do place hundreds of other children in stable homes.