Gay Issue Spurs Catholic Group to End Adoptions

March 12, 2006 — -- Catholic Charities of Boston will stop placing children in adoptive homes after a century of doing so, saying it no longer wants to have to consider gay couples as parents, which it must do under the law.

Before announcing its decision to end adoption services this weekend, Catholic Charities of Boston quietly processed a small number of gay adoptions, despite strong opposition from the Vatican. Over the past two decades, more than 700 children have been adopted thanks to Catholic Charities of Boston. Of those, 13 were placed in the homes of gay couples.

"We find ourselves in a conflict, in which the religious and moral principles of Catholic teaching and practice clash with the political and civil regulations of the state," said Rev. Bryan Hehir, the president of Catholic Charities of Boston.

In Massachusetts, there are discrimination laws that force adoption agencies to look at all possible parents -- a proposition the group says goes against their beliefs. The Vatican has long held that gay adoption is "gravely immoral."

But John Budron disagrees. Budron, a gay man, has adopted two children with his partner, Tim Fitzgerald.

"You don't even know me," he said. "How dare you say I'm not a good parent?"

Budron and Fitzgerald, who live in Milton, Mass., and have been together for 20 years, adopted two children eight years ago and say they rescued them from childhood trauma.

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"Our children came from a home that's not only abused and neglected, they then went on to a foster home that they're abused and neglected," Budron said. "How can anyone tell us that's better than where they are now?"

The couple said their love for unwanted children that makes them fit parents, not their sexuality.

But Garry and Toni Barnes of Columbus, Ohio, who've adopted nine children, say that sexuality is an issue.

"How can two men have a child -- or two women for that matter," Garry Barnes said.