Continental promo
||  News  ||
 
August 04, 2006

San Francisco's Catholic Charities develops plan to allow adoptions by gays

The social services arm of the archdiocese of San Francisco announced Wednesday that it has found a way to help connect hard-to-place children with welcoming parents, gay or straight, without violating the Catholic Church's views on homosexuality. By partnering with another adoption service, San Francisco's Catholic Charities will increase the number of children that find homes without it having to directly place kids with same-sex couples, said the agency's executive director, Brian Cahill.

California Kids Connection, a statewide adoption exchange set up by the Oakland-based nonprofit Family Builders by Adoption, features information about 500 children on a Web site that prospective parents can browse. Workers at the adoption service had to limit the number of children they work with because of limited staffing, but with the help of three Catholic Charities employees who will be placed there, they'll be able to handle more cases, said San Francisco archbishop George Niederauer.

The Catholic Charities workers will refer prospective parents to agencies that can complete the adoption proceedings, Niederauer said. "That's where we'll help," he said. "What we won't be doing...is placement in homes. We can't be involved in that anymore."

Before Wednesday's announcement, Catholic Charities in San Francisco completed an average of 25 adoptions, including one to same-sex couples, per year, Cahill said. The search for an alternative approach began about five months ago, when Niederauer told Catholic Charities that placing children in same-sex households went against church teachings.

He asked the agency, which got its start helping children orphaned by San Francisco's devastating 1906 earthquake, to find a way to continue to serve orphans without violating Catholic views. The new program will allow it to help more of the approximately 82,000 children in California's foster care system than they do now, Cahill said.

Boston's Catholic Charities opted out of the controversy by shutting down its adoption program entirely, but Cahill said that was not an acceptable alternative in San Francisco. "I'm not going to downplay the fact the church told us to stop placing children in same-sex homes," he said. "But we're committed to our mission. We started off as an adoption agency. Why would we give that up?" (AP)

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

Back to top

Submit a comment for this story:

*Type your comment here (Required, 1000 characters max. HTML formatting and hyperlinks are NOT permitted.):

*Name (Required): 

*Hometown (Required): 

*E-mail address: (Required, but will not be displayed)

Is this comment for publication? 
Yes   No

Daytime phone number: (Required for print publication only and will not be displayed)

Please enter the words you see in the box, in order and separated by a space. Doing so helps prevent automated programs from abusing this service.

  

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above. 

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.

More Exclusives
  • View From the Hill: The End of DADT?
    Defense Secretary Robert Gates revealed that lawyers are exploring ways to ease enforcement of the military's gay ban, but cautioned that the law doesn't leave much wiggle room. He need look no further than DOD history for a lesson in altering the policy.
  • Hot Sheet: Week of July 5
    When you get back from that big 4th of July barbecue, unwind with Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno and your favorite B-movie-mocking, basic cable robots.
  • Hungry Like the Wolf
    A master of viola, ukulele, piano, and harp, Patrick Wolf is a music prodigy -- one who, the night before this interview, spit on a cop and got himself arrested.
  • Soapside: Advocate's Guide to Daytime
    Forbes March talks about playing gay, Otalia fans outraged, update on One Life to Live’s Patricia Maurceri’s firing over gay plot point, Phillip Chancellor III big reveal, and Erica Kane goes to Africa.
  • The Faces of Federal Prop. 8
    With the federal challenge to Prop. 8 moving full speed ahead, Advocate.com sits down with the two couples named as plaintiffs in the suit.
  • Mommy, the Gays Are Coming
    After a year of advancements and celebration for gay and lesbian Colombians, the community takes to the streets of Bogota for the country's biggest pride ever.
  • The Pride of Antwerp
    Advocate.com hits the gay-friendly streets of Antwerp with openly gay police commissioner Serge Muyters.
  • Excerpt: Mean Little Deaf Queer
    In an excerpt from her humorous and harrowing new memoir, Mean Little Deaf Queer, Terry Galloway recalls her early childhood, describing feelings of ugliness, confusion about gender, and being one of the boys.
  • Top Political Blogs
    From Joe.My.God to The Daily Beast, Advocate.com spotlights a few of the best blogs that cover politics, inside and way outside the Beltway.
  • The Diva of French Television
    A hot young screenwriter who has made gay OK for millions of French viewers, Nicolas Mercier sips champagne, dons a feathered hat, and says he wants to see Colin Farrell and Jude Law go at it.