While
not calling for an outright ban on adoptions by
gay families, San Francisco's new archbishop has made
it clear that he believes placing children in gay
households conflicts with Roman Catholic teachings on
homosexuality, a spokesman said. Archbishop George
Niederauer therefore has asked the social services arm of
the archdiocese of San Francisco to bring its adoption
program "fully in sync" with the church's views while
continuing to find homes for hard-to-place youngsters,
spokesman Maurice Healy said Monday.
"Our teaching on marriage and family life
precludes these kinds of adoptions," Healy said. "We
need to find another way to help this vulnerable
population. How remains to be worked out."
Niederauer, who was installed on February 15,
first offered his thoughts on the subject last week
following an announcement by the Boston archdiocese
that it would stop providing adoption services altogether
rather than comply with a Massachusetts law that
requires gays and lesbians to be considered as
prospective parents. Similar laws exist in California
and seven other states.
"We realize that there are people in our
community, some of whom work side by side with us to
serve the needy in society, who do not share our
beliefs, and we recognize and respect that fact," Niederauer
said in a written statement.
Since 2000 five of the 136 adoptions facilitated
by Catholic Charities of San Francisco have been to
gay couples, according to Brian Cahill, the agency's
executive director. Stressing the small numbers involved and
the difficulty of finding homes for the handicapped
children Catholic Charities serves, Cahill said Monday
that he interpreted the new archbishop's remarks as a
guideline, not a ban.
"Catholic teaching is paramount. Equally
paramount are the best interests of the vulnerable
children that we serve," he said. "It is not that gay
and lesbian couples come banging down our doors. They are
not going to come to an agency that is the social service
arm of the Catholic Church."
Healy said Catholic Charities might be able to
complete any adoptions by gay couples that already are
in the pipeline, but he was less sure whether
Niederauer's position offered any wiggle room. "It's clear
to him, under Catholic teaching, a Catholic agency
should not be making these kinds of adoptions," he
said, adding that one option for the archdiocese is to
work harder to recruit heterosexual Catholics as
adoptive parents.
Following the announcement from Boston last
week, former San Francisco archbishop William Levada,
who is now second-in-command at the Vatican, told
The Boston Globe he had been aware of a
handful of gay adoptions during his tenure in California and
at the time saw them as "prudential judgments." But he
issued a statement saying they should not continue.
In response, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom
decided not to attend Levada's official elevation to
cardinal this week in Rome, said Peter Ragone, a
spokesman for Newsom. Meanwhile, the San Francisco board of
supervisors is scheduled to consider a resolution Tuesday
calling on Levada to withdraw his comments and for
local Catholic leaders to "to defy all discriminatory
directives of Cardinal Levada."
Although city supervisors have threatened to
withdraw funding from Catholic Charities if the
archdiocese decides not to place children in gay
households, Healy said such a move would not force the
program to close. The agency's adoption service has an
annual budget of about $400,000, he said. (AP)
