The Catholic Church has ordered shut down foster care services in Buffalo, NY after the city ordered that children be adopted to homosexuals against the teachings of the faith:
Catholic Charities of Buffalo has begun the process to phase out current foster care and adoption services under a contract with the Erie County Department of Social Services (DSS). The contract is set to expire in March 2019.
Foster care and adoption services are under the authority of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS).
Because Catholic Charities cannot simultaneously comply with state regulations and conform to the teaching of the Catholic Church on the nature of marriage, Catholic Charities will discontinue foster care and adoption services.
As an organization sponsored by the Diocese of Buffalo, Catholic Charities cannot uphold the requirement that contracting agencies allow same-sex couples to foster and adopt children. The teaching and position of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world recognizes marriage only as a union between a woman and a man.
“It is with deep sadness we acknowledge that the legacy of the high quality, exceptional services which our staff provides to children and families through foster care and adoption will be lost,” said Dennis C. Walczyk, Catholic Charities Chief Executive Officer. “We are working with the state OCFS and Erie County DSS to support a smooth transition for children in foster care and foster parents, as well as those who have submitted applications to provide foster care or seek adoption.”
The program currently includes 55 certified foster homes, with 34 children in care in 24 homes. Catholic Charities facilitates an average of five adoptions per year, the majority of which are cases in which children are released from foster care for adoption.
Adoption was one of several services on which Catholic Charities was founded nearly 95 years ago.
Similarly, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston stopped providing adoption services in March 2006 and Catholic Charities’ organizations across the State of Illinois followed with the same decision in November 2011. (source)
Just as with the case of the sexual abuse in the Church, much of the problem revolves around the issue of homosexuality. While even one case of sexual abuse is evil regardless of denomination and is a problem, if one looks at the problems in the Church, the issue is not with general abuse, but with specifically homosexual men abusing boys in over 80% of cases.
There is much that the Church can and needs to be criticized for. That said, there are also many Catholics who follow what the Church actually teaches, which is that homosexuality is a horrible sin and can never be tolerated.
While it is unfortunate that the Church is shutting down her foster care services, this is to be commended because it is being done on principle. Given the pattern of sexual abuse in the Church and its concentration with homosexuals, as well as the documented proclivity and repeatedly admitted statements of homosexuals to abuse children, to adopt children to the LGBT would be to actively endanger them as well as violate the teaching of the faith.
It is better that the organization should close, than violate the Faith or endanger the vulnerable.