May 22, 2007 / 10:30 am
A bill is being proposed in the Michigan house that would legalize adoptions by homosexual partners. Supporters of the bill point to the lack of opposition from the Michigan Catholic Conference as their reason for hoping the bill will pass. Detroit Free Press Columnist Brian Dickerson recently wrote, “The church’s neutrality underlines the fact that adoption and gay marriage are separate issues, practically as well as legally.”
To counter this false impression, the Thomas More Law Center revealed today that it has sent a letter to over one hundred members of the Michigan state House of Representatives informing them of the Catholic Church’s unequivocal opposition to adoptions by homosexual partners. The Thomas More Law Center is a national Christian legal advocacy group based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The Law Center’s letter extensively quotes from a 2003 document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith headed by then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. The document entitled, “Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to unions Between Homosexual Persons,” was intended to give direction to Catholic politicians and all persons committed to defending the common good of society. The document states: “Allowing children to be adopted by persons in such [homosexual] unions would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development.”
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center commented, “Not only does this House Bill violate Catholic doctrine, but it is a disguised effort to do an end-run around the state constitutional ban on same –sex marriages overwhelmingly passed by Michigan voters in 2004. Every citizen concerned with the common good of the community and our vulnerable children should oppose this Bill.”
The Law Center’s letter also expressed concern that if HB 4259 passed, it would cause Christian adoption agencies to withdraw from adoptions altogether rather than violate their religious principles. Typically, these Christian adoption agencies handle the hardest to place children. Thompson added, “Although the Catholic Church teaches respect for homosexual persons, the Church is emphatic that that respect ‘cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.’ Allowing homosexual partners to adopt children would be giving them such recognition.”