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DC: Catholic Church Closes Foster Care Program, Citing Gay Marriage Law

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

The Archdiocese of Washington has decided to drop its foster care program over a dispute on pending same-sex marriage law with the District of Columbia. The decision, posted late yesterday on the archdiocese’s Web site, announced that the archdiocese had ceased its 80-year-old program Feb. 1, the day the city’s contract expired with Catholic Charities, the church’s social services arm.

“We regret that our efforts to avoid this outcome were not successful,” Catholic Charities Chief Executive Officer Ed Orzechowski said in a statement. “Foster care has been an important ministry for us for many decades. We worked very hard to be able to continue to provide these services in the District.”

Catholic Charities, which runs more than 20 social service programs for the District, transferred its entire foster-care program — 43 children, 35 families and seven staff members — to another provider, the National Center for Children and Families.

Full Story from Lez Get Real
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
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DC:Catholic Church Threatens to Withdraw Social Services if Gay Marriage Bill Passed

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

In a surprisingly bold and seemingly unbiblical move, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is threatening to discontinue its social support for nearly 70,000 people — including a third of Washington’s homeless — because of its opposition to a proposed same-sex marriage bill.

Under the proposed bill, according to a story by Post reporters Tim Craig and Michelle Boorstein, religious organizations would not be required to perform same-sex weddings, “but they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.”

Apparently, the archdiocese is concerned that it could be forced, for example, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, open adoptions to same-sex couples, or rent a church hall to gay and lesbian groups. “If the city requires this, we can’t do it,” Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Wednesday. “The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that’s really a problem.”

Full Story from the Washington Post: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2009/11/the_archdioceses_ultimatum.html

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.


To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.