Friday, March 10, 2006

Clueless on Compassion




Roman Catholics I admire: Thomas Merton, Pope John XXIII, St. Francis of Assisi, among others.

Roman Catholics I don't admire: Torquemada, church pedophiles, church homophobes, cruel nuns and priests who created and ran the Magdalene homes, William A. Donohoe, that blowhard from the Catholic League, and the guy above, the president of Catholic Charities of Boston, whose religious sensibilities are more offended by other people's sexuality than by the carnage of the Iraq war.

This latest story is just so bizarre: rather than allow gays and lesbians to adopt children, the Roman Catholic Church-affiliated Catholic Charities in Massachusetts is SHUTTING DOWN ITS ADOPTION SERVICE.

What a frickin' joke.

For their church members they forbid birth control, they forbid abortion (though this has nothing to do with their priestly and nunly labor shortage--no one is really interested in cheap labor, are they?). If the Catholic Church had its way, we'd all be bowing to their religious dictates--think Griswold vs. Connecticut.

Now the church is letting us know that they'd rather have kids languish in foster homes than give up their phobias about homosexuality. Compassionate? Christian?

Meanwhile, the very same Catholic Church is still hiding their long history of harboring and cosseting pedophile priests who sexually abused defenseless children over decades.

Theme: protecting pedophile priests, that's ok. Cruelly abusing and mistreating kids in slave-like conditions, that's ok. Intruding into the private lives of adults, that's ok. Helping abused and neglected children find adoptive homes, not ok.

Perverted, is it not?

I'm glad they're getting out of the child welfare system. I trust their abilities in caring for children about as far as I can spit.

What would Jesus say? I mean, He was so BIG on homophobia, and so SMALL on, like, love thy neighbor as thyself, was He not? He liked the Old Testament stuff so much that that He never bothered to create a testament of His very own, now, did He?

Never mind.

It all reminds me of one of my favorite Betty Bowers bumper stickers:

MY PEDOPHILE PRIEST SUPPORTS TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE

Full story here.

CATHOLIC CHARITIES TO HALT ADOPTIONS OVER ISSUE INVOLVING GAYS

BOSTON --The Boston Archdiocese's Catholic Charities said Friday it would stop providing adoption services because state law allows gays and lesbians to adopt children.

The social services arm of the Roman Catholic archdiocese has provided adoption services for the state for about two decades, and said it would discontinue once it completes its contract with the state. It said that the state law allowing gays to adopt runs counter to church teachings on homosexuality.

"The world was very different when Charities began this ministry at the threshold of the 20th century," the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, president of Catholic Charities, and trustees chairman Jeffrey Kaneb said in a joint statement. "The world changed often and we adapted the ministry to meet changing times and needs. At all times we sought to place the welfare of children at the heart of our work.

"But now, we have encountered a dilemma we cannot resolve," they said.

The state's four Catholic bishops said earlier this month that the law threatens the church's religious freedom by forcing it to do something it considers immoral.

Eight members of Catholic Charities board later stepped down in protest of the bishops' stance. The 42-member board had voted unanimously in December to continue considering gay households for adoptions.

Catholic Charities has been involved in adoptions for about a century, but has had a contract with the state for the past two decades. Its contract with the state expires June 30.

In the past two decades, Catholic Charities has placed 720 children in adoptive homes. Of those 720 children, 13 were placed with same-sex couples, Catholic Charities said. Since 1977, the state Department of Social Services has contracted with Catholic Charities to provide special needs adoption services to children with severe emotional and physical needs.

"We recognize the complexity of the issue, and we are aware of the debates which have swirled around it, Hehir and Kaneb said in the statement. "As an agency, however, we simply must recognize that we cannot continue in this ministry."

Fine by me. I'm all for a little more separation of church and state.





5 comments:

Unknown said...

My personal favorite is this...

They care about the fetis but once it becomes a real "child"..they dont seem to really do much for them..or worry bout their rights or protect them from the pedofile priests..

Anonymous said...

This post has a weird black section...censorship? Like when they put a black square over people's eyes to make them anonymous?

Anyway, they handle adoption in many states and get many contracts for services like addiction and mental health counseling. Should religious groups get contracts to provide services like that paid for by PUBLIC money?I'm not sure. In some cases they do a decent job but as we can see from these kids of examples, they are hatemongering despite their sweet charitable fronts. I'm sick of them , to put it simply. Their hypocrsiy and alck of accountability where children are concerned is their unrelenting shame. Thanks NB for your thoughtful posts as always. I had this idea that I would avoid upsetting argumentative issues this week but that never happens. Ambien. Xanax. Comedy Central.

Anonymous said...

As usual blogger inserts all kinds of typo problems...drats. I swear it isn't me...I'm being framed.

No Blood for Hubris said...

The black box thing seems to be pix that don't quite manifest.

I'd pick Daily Show and Colbert over pharmaceuticals, but work hard to find many other de-stressing activities, and work on those. If I may be so bold.

I think--enough about the faith-based crap.

Don't drown gubmint in the bathtub--just make gubmint competent again.

And it would be ok to have all those whose hubris is responsible for this mess to spend endless time in prison and make payback of really a lot of dough.

No Blood for Hubris said...

Not only ignoring the death penalty, but ignoring the Iraq War. Trying to deny communion to pro-choice politicians like Kerry and Kennedy, but not to Catholic politicians who back Iraq.