Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Catholic-Affiliated Adoption Agency Recruiting Homosexual Adoptive Parents
LifeSiteNews ^ | 5/29/07 | John Jalsevac

Posted on 05/29/2007 4:25:23 PM PDT by wagglebee

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, May 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Bay Area adoption/foster care agency, Family Builders, partnering with the City and County of San Francisco, has launched a controversial ad campaign in the hope of attracting more homosexual couples to adopt children.

Two of the posters that form the core of the campaign feature homosexual couples together with their adopted children. The signs either use the slogan "Family Planning," with the phrase beneath, "Our family was no accident-we planned for it," or the slogan "Intelligent Design," with the phrase, "Before we started our family we considered all the options."

Family Builders is the adoption agency that San Francisco's Catholic Charities partnered with last year after the government enforced legislation mandating that all adoption agencies permit homosexual adoptions.  Rather than follow the lead of Boston's Catholic archdiocese, which closed its adoption services rather than be associated with homosexual adoption, San Francisco Catholic Charities side-stepped Catholic teaching on the intrinsic immorality of homosexual adoption by partnering with Family Builders.

In August of last year Catholic Charities announced that they would be sending three employees to work at California Kids Connection, which is Family Builders' online adoption agency.  At the time Archbishop Niederauer told the Globe that he believed sending Catholic Charities employees to help homosexuals adopt children was a matter of "remote cooperation," and therefore justifiable.

A 2003 statement from the Catholic Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, however, then under the leadership of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, said that homosexual adoptions "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."

 "I think Catholic Charities in San Francisco is very supportive of all our work, they're just restrained by church edicts," said Jill Jacobs, the executive director of Family Builders, according to the California Catholic Daily, in reference to the new campaign.

Although Catholic Charities did not respond directly to Family Builders' ad campaign, Executive Director Brian Cahill did write to the Daily saying, "We greatly admire the work of Family Builders by Adoption, and that is why we have partnered with them on the California Kids Connection Web site, to help find adoptive homes for the most vulnerable children in the foster care system."

Ironically, considering the support given to Family Builders by Catholic Charities, in some measure the new ad campaign is being launched in direct defiance of conservative and religious groups, in particular the Catholic Church, who have voiced strong opposition to allowing homosexual couples to adopt.

The phrase "Intelligent Design" is the name given to certain scientific theories of evolution that are most often associated with fundamentalist Christians. By using the phrase in the context of homosexual adoption the adoption agency is making a thinly veiled stab at the religious right.

In reference to the current ad campaign Family Builders supervisor Bevan Dufty claimed that, "The religious right…only seems to care about how a child gets here, and once they're here, they're somebody else's problem."

"The campaign is very timely, given the current efforts of fundamentalist Christian groups who are trying to prevent LGBT families from adopting." said Les Pappas, the Creative Director of Better World Advertising, the advertising agency that created the posters. "This campaign sends a very clear message--in San Francisco, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders are not only allowed to adopt, but are strongly encouraged."

In reference to the mounting controversy about the ad campaign, Trent Rhorer, executive director of the San Francisco Human Services Agency said, "It's welcome…Bring it on."

The Family Builders campaign was announced only several weeks after Focus on the Family held an adoptive summit in Colorado Springs. At that summit Focus on the Family and its supporters sought to find ways to more effectively encourage Christian families to consider adoption.

"Historically, Christians have cared about orphans," said Mark Andre, Director of the Orphan Care Initiative at Focus on the Family. "And we still do. But we need to raise awareness of the practical means for translating care into action. Churches and families need the facts, resources, encouragement and support to take on this challenge in a way that gets the job done. We want to see these children in permanent, loving homes, and the goal of the summit is to support that mission with greater purpose and urgency."

To respectfully express your concern write:

Most Rev. George H. Niederauer
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco
One Peter Yorke Way
San Francisco, CA 94109
415 614 5500
E-mail: info@sfarchdiocese.org

Or

Catholic Charities San Francisco
180 Howard Street, Suite 100
San Francisco, CA 94105
moreinfo@cccyo.org
Voice: 415.972.1200
Fax: 415.972.1201

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

San Francisco Catholic Adoption Staff to Work With Gay Friendly Agency
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/aug/06080804.html



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cafeteriacatholics; catholic; homosexualadoption; homosexualagenda; moralabsolutes
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last
To: lastchance

“Unfortunately it seems that many Catholic Charity boards and members are CINO. I don’t know how much influence and/or authority has over the Catholic Charity in their diocese. Does anyone know?”

In our diocese they take up a collection in every parish for catholic charities. It would semm that some authority would exist.


21 posted on 05/29/2007 5:51:31 PM PDT by rogator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Alouette

you are wrong on both counts statistically.

In Florida there was a highly publicized case of a gay couple who already had several special needs children. They had to move to Oregon because although they had been caring for these kids for several years, they could not adopt them. Only reason: they were gay.

So far, no one answering my question at the end of post
# 9.


22 posted on 05/29/2007 6:24:16 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (We need a troop surge in New Orleans and Philly!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Alouette

and you have statistics on these special needs chilldrens’ parent not signing off?
I doubt that.

Why would anyone rule out a caring person to take this responsibility?


23 posted on 05/29/2007 6:26:44 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (We need a troop surge in New Orleans and Philly!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie
In Florida there was a highly publicized case of a gay couple who already had several special needs children.

Any more cases other than this highly publicized one?

I very much doubt that gays are stampeding to adopt all the special children, stuffed into Dickensian orphanages or farmed out to abusive fosters, that heterosexual Christians don't want.

BTW my son administers a network of "detskii dom" (orphanages) in Russia, which is where most adopted white children come from these days. Almost every one of the children in his institutions have parents or close family members who do not want to relinquish their children to overseas adoptions.

24 posted on 05/29/2007 6:36:20 PM PDT by Alouette (Vicious Babushka)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Alouette

Russian orphanages? don’t want to release their children to adoptions overseas?

Ok, I am thru discussing this with you....HELLO!
We are talking about adoptions in the USA/

BTW you still can’t answer my question can you?
Because you WOULD object to a child having a home with a gay couple even if that was the last couple on earth that wanted to adopt the child.

That is the height of lack of compassion.


25 posted on 05/29/2007 6:41:08 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (We need a troop surge in New Orleans and Philly!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie
We are talking about adoptions in the USA

If there are so many unwanted children in the USA then why do infertile couples have to go overseas to adopt? There are WAITING LISTS that infertile couples languish on FOR YEARS in order to adopt in the USA.

even if that was the last couple on earth that wanted to adopt the child.

STRAW MAN, has nothing to do with "compassion" or lack of same, because INFERTILE NON-GAY COUPLES WAIT FOR YEARS TO ADOPT.

26 posted on 05/29/2007 6:56:36 PM PDT by Alouette (Vicious Babushka)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

It’s frustrating to me that the Catholic Church is violating its own moral teachings by doing this. I’m sick of CINOs getting ahold of the Church. It appears a couple California diocese, including this and Los Angeles are under the grasps of CINOs.

First of all, the add campaigns mock Catholicism. Family Planning is a knock on NFP and the Church’s opposition to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a big supporter of no “accident” families. That is exactly why they kill those who are unplanned “accidents”. Intelligent Design is just a rip on how the Catholic Church believes the world was created. They are claiming these families to be “intelligently designed” as though by God, even though these families directly oppose the Church’s teachings. The add also mentions that the family considered all their “options”. Options is a common term used by the above mentioned Planned Parenthood, and their talk about “accidents”. It’s obvious this group does not like Catholicism because they further mention that there is no regard for the children once they get here, meaning we save their lives from and don’t care. That is of course very ridiculous to say.

Secondly, the Church should never support agencies that are putting children in an immoral situation to be politically correct and give the children “somewhere” to live. These situations are not conducive to the healthy moral growth of the children. Would these agencies give children to an unmarried couple wanting children, polygamists who want children, or groups of people that want children? My guess is most agencies would not, even though the aforementioned would probably love the children and give them somewhere to live. If they would, though, would the Church support them as well? Does the Church support them adopting out to unmarried couples too?

Ultimately, the Church should condemn agencies that are putting children in immoral situations contrary to its own teachings. The Church should have either left the adoption business altogether or continued on by defying the rules (meaning not adopting to homosexuals).

I hoping most other U.S. diocese would be opposed to this, the Catholic Church in other countries, and ultimately the Pope.


27 posted on 05/29/2007 6:58:26 PM PDT by Pinkbell (Hunter/Thompson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie

You got some more recovering there to do Ex-hippie A little reading:

Homosexuality More Dangerous Than Smoking
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1811137/posts

Gay foster parents abused young boys (UK)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1637039/posts

Lesbian couple found guilty of boy’s murder (refused to call mom’s dyke friend “daddy”!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603097/posts

Study finds disproportionate abuse by ‘gays’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1355028/posts

Gay Foster Parents More Apt to Molest
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1439170/posts

Experts Worldwide Find Gay Adoption Harmful for Children [Spanish Study Results]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1417036/posts

Study shows link between homosexuality and pedophilia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1331584/posts

That’s enought for now.


28 posted on 05/29/2007 7:41:31 PM PDT by quietolong
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee; All

Mind you I am not Catholic, but shouldn’t the Pope sanction this “Catholic” non-profit Adoption Agency or something..if worse comes to worse “Excommunicate” the priests who run it..?


29 posted on 05/29/2007 8:35:34 PM PDT by JSDude1 (www.pence08.com.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: quietolong

another brilliant response...did you think that up all by yourself ?
“you got some more recovering to do”...wow. what an intelligent, thought out response.

Then more brilliance with a whole slew of sites that have nothing to do with gay parenting and then two “reports” that gay parenting is not a good idea. I never said it was ‘ideal”..but then you don’t want to even consider a possibility in extreme situations.

So you still don’t answer the question I pose , which is very realistic, in my post #9.


30 posted on 05/29/2007 9:12:50 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (We need a troop surge in New Orleans and Philly!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie
"Because you WOULD object to a child having a home with a gay couple even if that was the last couple on earth that wanted to adopt the child."

What IS a "gay" couple -simply a pair of physically heterosexual human beings who partner up with members of the same physical sex to engage in intrinsically disordered sexual activities?

I WOULD object to any child being placed with a person that chooses to engage in intrinsically disordered sexual activities no matter what moral relative argument you pull out of your hat. Two wrongs do not make right NOR does a lesser evil make such evil good...

Placing a child with a "homosexual" single, pair or group is in essence comparable to committing violence/imposing psychological abuse upon a child.

P.S. Since this topic has a Catholic "theme" -my post encapsulates what the Catholic Church teaches on the subject.

31 posted on 05/29/2007 9:16:32 PM PDT by DBeers (†)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie
If there is a child with a severe physical disability and a single or two gay people who have been screened by the agency want to care for the child so it is not institutionalzied because there is no heterosexual couple available...let me guess...YOU would object.

You argue exactly like a lib--create a worst-case scenario argument and dare someone to be against it. Well, here's a similar argument for you:

Let's suppose that 50% of homosexual adoptions turned into situations where the kids were sexually abused. In the other 50%, the kids were treated well. Would you be willing to support homo-adoptions then?

This is bull-crap. No kid should EVER be put into the home of two individuals with a serious mental illness. I don't care what the APA says--most of these poor children are going to be seriously screwed up. God help our nation for allowing it and our bishops for letting it go unchallenged.

And yes, Abp. Niederauer is looking like an abominable appointment--just another Lavendar-mafia-apparatchik.
32 posted on 05/29/2007 9:32:44 PM PDT by Antoninus (P!ss off an environmentalist wacko . . . have more kids.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Alouette
Any more cases other than this highly publicized one?

I noticed that, too. Some people are still stupid enough to fall for the MSM propaganda, it seems.
33 posted on 05/29/2007 9:34:22 PM PDT by Antoninus (P!ss off an environmentalist wacko . . . have more kids.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Alouette
If there are so many unwanted children in the USA then why do infertile couples have to go overseas to adopt? There are WAITING LISTS that infertile couples languish on FOR YEARS in order to adopt in the USA.

Game, set, match. Well done.
34 posted on 05/29/2007 9:35:28 PM PDT by Antoninus (P!ss off an environmentalist wacko . . . have more kids.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus; DBeers

I give up.

Your hatred and anger about “homos” is so intense that no rational argument is possible. BTW....lets just not let any heterosexual couples adopt either cause after all there is also sexual and physical abuse there...oh, yeah, but they are not “seriously mentally ill.”

I am appalled by your “Christianity”...makes me ashamed to call myself Christian. Keep your version of the Christian religion and your version of the only right way to be ‘compassionate”....and for your “bishops”.


35 posted on 05/29/2007 9:41:27 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (We need a troop surge in New Orleans and Philly!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus

they go overseas cause they don’t want less than perfect children and certainly not older ones. wow...pretty compassionate. But then you can’t argue with you....”game set. match.”

Your hate is just so circular. Better not let any heterosexual atheists or Budhhists adopt either. After all, the bishops wouldn’t approve.


36 posted on 05/29/2007 9:44:50 PM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (We need a troop surge in New Orleans and Philly!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Robert A. Cook, PE

“Notice the VERY blatant deliberate “insults” to orthodox (real Catholic/evangelical) religions in even the “titles” of the ad campaigns?

You think they did that by accident? Or that they will apologize? ......”

Of course not. Their goal is to destroy Christian mores and traditional culture.

We hear: “In reference to the current ad campaign Family Builders supervisor Bevan Dufty claimed that, “The religious right…only seems to care about how a child gets here, and once they’re here, they’re somebody else’s problem.””

If people insult gay people like Bevan Dufty smears the religious right, they are called bigots.

Some prejudice is more acceptable that other prejudice.


37 posted on 05/29/2007 9:50:52 PM PDT by WOSG (Stop Illegal Immigration. Call your Senator today. Senate Switchboard at 202-224-3121.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee

He was referring to the ad campaign not the article.


38 posted on 05/29/2007 9:51:31 PM PDT by WOSG (Stop Illegal Immigration. Call your Senator today. Senate Switchboard at 202-224-3121.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie

“Guess not, or there would not be so many children who are “unadoptable”..maybe because of special needs.”

Wrong guess, try again.


39 posted on 05/29/2007 9:52:39 PM PDT by WOSG (Stop Illegal Immigration. Call your Senator today. Senate Switchboard at 202-224-3121.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Recovering Ex-hippie

“Ok, I am thru discussing this with you....HELLO!
We are talking about adoptions in the USA/”

All of the adoptive parents that I know personally have had to go overseas (eg China, Romania, Russia, Bolivia) to adopt children.

I’m curious, are you aware of that, and do you know why so many adoptive parents are doing that?


40 posted on 05/29/2007 9:55:17 PM PDT by WOSG (Stop Illegal Immigration. Call your Senator today. Senate Switchboard at 202-224-3121.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-50 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson