D.C. Council calling Catholic Charity's bluff

Overheard at a DC Playground. . .

Archbishop Wuerl while pounding fists on the ground:

"They're my toys. All mine. They're mine, mine. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Close the GayTM. Only give to candidates who have actually done something other than make promises - most are just pandering for our cash.

---

by: JohnVisser @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 21:51:30 PM CST

What burns me up the most

is that they pull crap like this, and then they act confused about why people like me are leaving in droves.

Fetch my pearls, I need to clutch them!

---

by: RainbowPhoenix @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 22:17:22 PM CST

Small correction...

Catholic Charities actually had a history of adopting out kids to gay parents

would be more accurate if it read

Catholic Charities actually had a history of placing older and darker-skinned children with LGBT people,  who then adopted those children a lot more often than kids in those same demographics are adopted by straight couples.

So they shot themselves in the foot by losing the state funding for their 'adoption mission'. But when you look at their successes in Boston finding gay couples to raise hard to place kids, that was a huge part of their book of business. I think their argument for why they ended adoption services, which was basically 'we're not permitted by Rome to make the only matches we're good at', was sound. But they ought to be ashamed of whinging about it.

But wait, there's more!

---

by: PhoenixRising @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 22:21:48 PM CST

The Boston Globe disagrees

The Globe says Catholic Charities placed hard-to-place children (which means older and browner) but doesn't say that they were with LGBT families. The article says that CC did 13 gay adoptions out of 720 total.

I don't have a citation but I've read before that overall, queer families adopt older children, children of color, and children with disabilities at higher rates than straight couples. However, I don't think you can say that CC of Boston was only good at placing kids with LGBT families. It seems like they were good at placing harder-to-place kids with families, period. Once again, the Catholic Church not caring about kids once they are born, at least not as much as they care about punishing queers.

http://www.boston.com/news/loc...

---

by: one jewish dyke @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 22:52:20 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I just looked it up

The board of Catholic Charities of Boston was willing to have the organization work with GLBT adoptive families. So willing, in fact, that they had long been complying with the state's anti-discrimination laws and had placed children with GLBT families, just not shouting it from the rooftops since the Vatican is so against us forming families. Then the four bishops in Massachusetts figured out that Catholic Charities was complying with the laws and tried to get good old Mitt Romney to grant them an exception. Much as Romney wanted to do it, he lacked the authority. The bishops thought about a court challenge, but decided they would just take their toys and go home rather than have to share the playground with gay families.

Catholic Charities of Boston never made any threats, just decided they would rather stop working in the adoption field than comply with the law and then asked for pity about their poor religious freedom being taken away. The DC organization trying to threaten its way to a theocracy is a new one.  

---

by: one jewish dyke @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 22:40:22 PM CST

There are plenty of other agencies to fill the void

I don't see Catholic Charities as anything above the fray in the adoption business.  Or any other business for that matter.

If Catholic Charities can't play by the rules, I'm sure a Jewish, Protestant, or secular agency can do just as creditable a job.  

The fact of the matter is that non-profits are clamoring for any funding they can get their hands on in this economy.  Bigotry carries a penalty when it comes to government monies.

---

by: Phil @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 23:20:08 PM CST

Lutheran Social Services could fill this role

---

by: kevinchi @ Fri Nov 13, 2009 at 08:06:45 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Religion...

is for the weak minded. A true follower of Christ knows that.

No one is free when others are oppressed!

---

by: ThePhoenix @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 23:50:59 PM CST

Heretics, blasphemers and adulterers, but not TEH GAY!

Let us not forget that current DC marriage law recognizes het couples who are not married according to Roman Catholic law - including those not married by any clergy (fornicators), and those "remarried" after a legal divorce (adulterers). In addition, existing DC law requires the Catholic church - when performing functions like helping the homeless or placing children for adoption or even running the Georgetown University Hospital - to treat Protestants (heretics) and those who read the King James Blasphemy (blasphemers) as equal citizens. Apparently the Church is fine with accepting all those forms of sin, but not TEH GAY!

Stunningly pathetic, IMHO. I was once so proud of my Irish ancestors who resisted the oppression of the English and kept their religion alive. It is so sad to see it devolve to nothing more than a political hate group.  

---

by: CPT_Doom @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 23:54:08 PM CST

D.C.'s City Council is one of the most progressive in the U.S.

so fuck the Catholics.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.-- Thomas Jefferson

---

by: Mykelb @ Fri Nov 13, 2009 at 08:10:51 AM CST

The San Francisco diocese tried something similar a few years ago.

When the SF board of supervisors passed a law requiring anyone doing business with the city to follow the city's nondiscrimination laws, the diocese went haywire, insisting they would never do it.  The city called their bluff and announced that all of the diocese's (very lucrative) contracts with the city would be canceled.  And the next day--the very next morning--the archbishop held a new conference and announced, in so many words, "Never mind."

I'm guessing the DC diocese will do the same.  It's amazing how quickly Holy Mother Church comes around when their bottom line is threatened.

As for Archbishop Wuerl, he made a lot of trouble for us here in Pittsburgh, when we were working to get our gay rights law passed.  The law actually failed the first time it was introduced, primarily because of lobbying by the diocese.  The second time, a year later, some of our people had a private meeting with him and explained that if the diocese did not stop opposing us, a highly placed official in the diocese (guess who?) would be publicly exposed for the sexually active gay man we knew him to be.  We had names of gay bartenders ready to testify they had served him in their establishments, names of people who had seen him being affectionate with his boyfriend (a priest who was the diocese's frequent spokesman), plus names of men who had actually slept with him.  The headline in the Post-Gazette next morning: CATHOLIC DIOCESE DROPS OPPOSITION TO GAY RIGHTS LAW.  It was a wonderful moment.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  
-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

---

by: QScribe @ Fri Nov 13, 2009 at 10:47:57 AM CST

Good for you, QScribe...

It's about fucking time people started threatening to blow up the closet of the Catholic Church. We need MORE people doing this. I'm decended on both sides of my family from Irish Protestants from Ulster, and if you want to see what Catholic theocracy means, look at Northern Ireland. The church not only aided and abetted the IRA, they helped finance it. This is an organization with the blood of BILLIONS of people on it's hands, and not just Irish Protestants.
If I was anyone in DC city government, I'd advocate going further than San Francisco. Don't just threaten to cancel their city contract-JUST DO IT. No explanation. There are plenty of secular organizations that are doing the same thing the catholics are-only BETTER, and without shoving Jesus and the babble down the throat of the homeless-who don't listen to that crap anyway.  

---

by: Mindyinlongbeach @ Fri Nov 13, 2009 at 13:54:25 PM CST

[ Parent ]

And just to be fair...

The Protestants are no better. It seems that they feel justified killing in Jesus' name-it's just who they kill. They used to kill each other-AND us. Now it's just us they feel justified in murdering.  

---

by: Mindyinlongbeach @ Fri Nov 13, 2009 at 13:56:50 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Stop the public funding

 "It's amazing how quickly Holy Mother Church comes around when their bottom line is threatened." Yep, and I also agree blow open their closet. We have to stop protecting the 'holier than thou' priest that spend their free time at the gay bars with their lovers.

I am proud the DC council stepped up and are setting an example for many council, local/state and even federal lawmakers threatened by the church.  

Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving."
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton

---

by: T2inDC @ Fri Nov 13, 2009 at 15:50:27 PM CST

[ Parent ]