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What a tragedy it is to lose such an important and successful ministry, run by the best Catholic organization in the nation. I particularly like this column because Jacoby points out that Catholic Charities "made no effort to block same-sex couples from adopting. It asked no one to endorse its belief that homosexual adoption is wrong. [...]In at least one Massachusetts diocese, in fact, the standing Catholic Charities policy had been to refer same-sex couples to other adoption agencies." Jacoby is absolutely right to also point out that CC "excels at arranging adoptions for children in foster care, particularly those who are older or handicapped, or who bear the scars of abuse or addiction"--and to be forced to discontinue this service is just appalling. My deepest sympathies go out to the Archdiocese of Boston.

Now this is starting to make sense. When this story first hit the news I didn't understand why the Catholic Church had to shut down its adoption services because of its refusal to comply with Massachusetts adoption regulationsa. I figured the Church could simply have run their own adoption service according to their own religious mandate (i.e., placing Catholic children in with stable Catholic families, etc.) regardless of what the government said.

Now it looks as if there really isn't much of a religious element to this thing at all. Despite its name, Catholic Charities isn't a religious organization . . . it's basically an operating agency of the government.

run by the best Catholic organization in the nation.

Anyone who thinks Catholic Charities of Boston is the "best Catholic organization in the nation" is nuts. The reason this became an issue is precisely because Catholic Charities of Boston was allowing homosexual couples to adopt children. The Bishops of Massachusetts said stop and seven board members of CC resigned in protest. Jacoby failed to mention that in his column. CC of Boston is an apostate organization operating under the umbrella of the Church. A situation that is, unfortunately, not unique to the Archdiocese of Boston. Hopefully CC of Boston, with the firm hand of the Bishops guiding them, will become an organization worthy of the title Catholic.

I think that a lot of the ensuing discussion has been a bit off topic. The bottom line is that Catholic Charities should not be forced to place children with homosexual couples. What is of priority are the children, and each adoption agency has its own methods by which is determines what home will be the best for a child. The government was saying that CC had to place children in homosexual arrangements, which a Catholic organization (no matter how nominally Catholic) should not be able to do, in "good conscience." Hence the shutdown. It's not discrimination for CC to make a principled case for not placing children with homosexual couples, because as the article points out, they were already referring same-sex couples interested in adoption to other agencies. Whether or not CC is a bona fide Catholic, "Rome is Home" organization is more of a moot point because the real issue is why should the government be FORCING them to give children to homosexual couples, SO LONG as the children were already getting placed? Isn't the point of the process that children get placed? As Jacoby points out, it's not about the adults, it's about the children. But somehow in all this uproar about whether or not CC is a "true" Catholic organization or not, we've lost the real tragedy of this - that there is one less organization in Boston that is working hard to provide children with what all children should have: a loving home and family that wants them.

It's a great article because it makes a great point: that in the name of "nondiscrimination" extremely intolerant views are being imposed on an organization.