Washington archdiocese ends adoption program

Why should we rethink our theology? Maybe Sister Maureen should rethink whether or not she belongs in the Catholic Church.

Moving beyond Jesus and the Church stricks again. Individual Catholics trying to reformulate the church in their image and likeness. Who ever said following Jesus was going to be easy and certainly there is no tradition to justify sex outside of a marriage between one man and one woman. It is what it is.

None of these facts address the theological objections of the hierarchy:
http://adoption.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=adoption&cdn=parent...
And we all know how concerned the celibate male Catholic hierarchy is about CHILDREN these days.

Truth is not determined by majority vote or juridical pronouncements.
Evil, at its core, knows only one lie that is presents in various forms: "I am good."

Truth stands on its own, independent of how we feel or what we want or how loudly our disordered passions be to be indulged and validated--how attractive our respective vices are, or how unfair it seems to be told we cannot indulge.

This is very unfortunate that a political agenda is forcing the Church to be less and less able to do the good it is so much the expert at doing.

AMEN
I do not think the hierarcy thinks.

Another tragic result of Catholic Charities accepting govt dollars...first Boston, now Washington,DC...where will we end up with this? The world of Catholic academe also "sold" their soul for "silver" and thus their identity and right to teach Truth was forfeited. The solution lies not as Ms Fiedler suggests in denying Truth but rather in getting back to proclaiming it to all who have ears to listen.

Any such rethinking will require a change in methodology. Currently Church leadership when it speaks of marriage and sexuality starts from abstract ideals. I value the role of such ideals. However, they need to dialogue with empirical reality. Almost none of the Church leadership's statements about sexuality take into account studies of human development, of psychological studies, of medical research. Biological ideals are too narrow a base upon which to build a meaningful to the issues that people are living and coping with. I am not hopeful that there is any willingness to move beyond that base.

Have they ever "rethought their theology" based on the signs of the times?

Whatever the merits on this particular issue, I'm glad that doesn't seem to be a criteria.

Very good article Maureen, it is sad that the Church cannot get beyond their medieval mind set about the present world. I am sure that their are many homosexual and gay couples that would do a good job of providing a loving home for children. Let's hope that one of these days the Church will have another Vatican Council that will follow up on the work of Vatican II and have a Pope who is as real as Pope John XXIII. God bless all people of good will and compassion.

And what makes you so uniquely qualified, Sister Maureen, to dictate to the Pope and the hierarchy re-think its theology on the whole question of homosexuality? On one hand we have Sister Maureen; on the other hand, we have the Vicar of Christ. Who knows better the mind of Christ? I think I'll take my chances with the Vicar of Christ.

Homosexual relationships are indeed a fact of life. They are also disordered relationships, regardless of whether or not "gay marriage" will be legal in the majority of states in the United States. I think the Holy Father and the Church know better than the U.S. or even you, Sister Maureen, about the human condition than you will ever know in your life for the rest of your life.

Right...and maybe GOD should read the "signs of the times" in order to make sure *He's* getting it right....

Oh, wait--I forgot--God IS getting it right through the teaching authority of the Church established by Jesus Christ....

Why not rail instead over the fact that it is the gay agenda that has quashed Catholic participation in adoption--in the process that completes God's plan that children be raised not just by two "parents" but by a *mother* and a *father*.

Sorry, Maureen, but your argument is with *God*, not man.

And then the Church will wonder why fewer and fewer people attend Mass and contribute.

Nothing like making innocent children pay for the "sins" of their fathers.

Note how quickly the Church is conforming with this law versus how 'unquickly' it has conformed with laws and legal opinions requiring it to turn over documents regarding the scandal.

If this were a Muslim charity organization and they pulled out of the program for the same reason many of you who denounce Catholic Charities would be crying that the law goes against the freedom of conscience of the Muslims! The Revenge of Liberal Hypocrisy--part 12.

The Church needs to rethink its "theology on the whole question of" adoption.

The shame and secrecy around adoption are very much like the shame and secrecy around other forms of abuse. Catholic Charities offices in American cities, like the Magdalene laundries and industrial schools of Ireland, and like the boarding schools for native Americans in North America, have a lot to answer for.

NCR ran an article by Patricia Lefevere in 1994 about how adopted people are not even allowed to know the names they were given in the Sacrament of Baptism. The Church/Catholic Charities falsifies sacramental records.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_n8_v31/ai_16025843/?tag=c...

From that:

Hotchkiss, who supervises Pregnancy and Adoption Services for Central Virginia and is program director of Catholic Charities in the Richmond diocese, characterized those who are demanding unsealing the records as "people who need therapy. ... Finding (the birth mother) is not going to solve their problems," she said.

Already adoptees have been given more rights than birth mothers, Hotchkiss said. Adoption, she noted, is not even possible without the birth mother. "Let's get one thing straight," she said she advises adoptees. "Your mother didn't abort you. She didn't place you and then jump off a bridge. She has a right to have her privacy respected."

Fr. Thomas Brosnan adamantly disagrees. So adamantly that he told New Jersey state senators that a person's right to his or her name and identity weighs "far more than the right of a woman to privacy from her own child." Brosnan, an adoptee who did not learn who his real mother was until age 31, testified that it was standard practice for dioceses to alter data on the baptismal certificates of adoptees.

Such alteration includes certificates that attest that the adoptee was born to his adoptive parents. Often two certificates with two different dates are issued, Brosnan testified. Dual certificates lead people to believe they were baptized twice, he said, a practice the church forbids.

By far the most serious falsification of such documents occurs when church authorities alter the child's baptismal name when that same child is adopted. Brosnan charged that such changes undermine "the very essence of the meaning of baptism, which is the naming of the human person before God."

The priest, who coordinates the Korean apostolate for the Brooklyn diocese and administers a Korean parish in Brooklyn, warned of the lie that can be initiated by the closing of birth records. "The lie told to avoid the shame of unwanted pregnancy becomes the lie of many adoptive parents so desperate to forget the pain of infertility, becomes the lie preserved in the falsified documents ostensibly manufactured to protect the child from the stigma of illegitimacy," he said.

Referring to his own illegitimacy, which required that he get a dispensation before being ordained, the priest said, "To deny me my inalienable right to know my name is to deny me my unique identity. I would rather be the bastard who knows his name, than the slave who does not."

This is very sad news. There is no reason to not consider GLBT couples for normal adoptions. If they can pass the same checklist as the rest of us there is no problem. It all goes to the hierarchy gross misconception of homosexual=pedophile. That is the undertone of this about "doing harm to the children" which could not be any farther from the truth. I see it as another way to deflect from the clergy sex abuse scandal to pass blame on.

I will continue to pray that these adoption programs in DC, San Fran, Boston, and elsewhere are reinstated and are open to the GLBT community so needy children can be placed in loving homes.

It is indeed sad. I have three children adopted through Washington DC Catholic Charities. But you are wrong when you suggest the Church change its position because many gay couples live decent lives and love their children. An extension of your faulty logic, taken to admittedly great extreme (to show the absurdity of your argument) extreme, says serial killers or pedophiles who do not molest their own children, only the children of others, should be allowed to adopt children because they love their wives and children. Moral wrong is moral wrong. Participating in gay adoptions would put approval upon gay lifestyles and turn away from centuries of moral position because "they love one another and do a good job."

It is the Church's undoing. Maureen is exactly the kind of Catholic Christian who represents Christ's teachings. The hierarchy of the Church of Rome is and has been in error on so many teachings that it is no longer considered credible by most Catholics or other Christian communities. The exception being the right wing elements who just can't accept the fact that the imperial model of being church is over. Just take a read of some of the posts to this thread and it is so easy to see the violent and ugly side of reactionary thinkers who want to fight to keep the status quo in Roman Catholicism. These people are hardly inclusive but they certainly love to disenfranchise those who may approach a different or progressive understanding of human sexuality based on the evolution of thinking in terms of human sexuality. Any theological objections by the current Roman hierarchy on this subject of adoption have no credibility because the entire system of hierarchy is out of order when it comes to Christ's inclusive love of all people. The hierarchy have lost all credibility. They lost it big time with the sexual abuse of children and the cover-up of this criminal behavior. The right wingers are in denial about this cover-up and they just love to EXCLUDE and are totally enamored of the imperial Roman models of Church. They don't remotely understand that Vatican II opened the doors for the death of that model because it has nothing to do with disciples of Jesus or His teachings. It is best to stand back and watch the implosion of this imperial model as it nears its' final stages of decay. It's not going to take as long as I thought and you can just see the desperation by the kind of arguments the far right elements post in these threads. They are virtually without any kind of love or understanding of other human beings whose opinions that may differ from their own and they really don't care how ugly they state these views. It will be their undoing.

The archdiocese made its choice - between doctrinal purity and helping children. God forbid that one of the women the archdiocese now refuses to help will dispair and have an abortion. Oh well - I guess that's OK so long as they can blame it on the Democrats.

I believe that many of the people who commented on Sister Maureen's ideas about Theology need to look at the history of the Church. Much of the theology was developed by men after Jesus was gone from this earth. Unfortunately, after the window was opened to the current world during Vatican II,the "naysayers" who tried to stop any changes from happening during the Council were successful in blocking progress. It seems that we are headed back to the middle ages when Church and State were tied together. The followers of Jesus were not involved in creating a Church like we have today.
All of the followers were involved in spreading the words of Jesus to their fellow Jews and then eventually to the Gentiles. I sometimes think that the Church today is more about power and control. Jesus was a man who served his followers. He loved them and died for all of our sins.

I agree with Mara! Sister Maureen should re think if she wants to be a member of the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ blessed the sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman. Love the sinner hate the sin. Homosexuality is a sin.

I agree with Mara, Sister Maureen should rethink if she wants to stay Catholic.

For all you homophobes who relish posting hateful comments passing off as so-called "Truth," I seriously doubt hate has a place in heaven.

God doesn't need to read the signs of the times. God has known all along. It's we who are slowly getting to know more and more science and history and other areas. Everybody should know by now that history shows that the teachings of the Church have in fact changed constantly over the years since Jesus tried to teach us the Good News. It is scientific fact that many species have a majority mode of procreation by sexual encounters between male and female in order to continue the species, but also have many members who perform sexual activities with members of the same sex, or with members of both sexes. This is the way of creation. God gave us brains that enable us to recognize these things. The fact that there are human homosexuals is basically as normal as having clovers that have 4, or 5 or 6 or 7 leaves, although the huge majority have 3 leaves. (And having 4 leaves is a sign of good luck! It's not disordered or intrinsically evil.) The members of the hierarchy also have brains, so they should be seeing the writing on the wall. Maybe they do but they're afraid of what it would do to the Church to admit that it should be changing. Instead they're willing to put the extraordinary human through condemnation and humiliation and isolation. Sounds a lot like the way the Church dealt with the sex abuse which has also gone on for centuries. Our brains should be showing us that sex is a natural fact of creation which can't be dealt with as though it didn't exist. The Church is so busy enforcing the unnatural boxes it tries to keep us in that it forgets the real teachings of Jesus--compassion and respect and joy. If the Church would spend the energy it spends on defending boxes instead on teaching compassion and respect and joy, that would be the Church Jesus founded. We should pray that everyone has the grace of being openminded and brave enough to recognize the truth (when it comes and hits us on the head). It's sometimes painful. It is hard to go beyond the ways we grew up with. But Jesus is the truth and the truth will set us free! We don't need to be afraid of it.

This is sadly a classic example of hypocrisy. The church's absolute respect for human life is sidelined by its desire to constantly remind gays that they are disordered, thereby driving them to commit suicide. Come on Abp. Weurhl. You can't have it both ways. Either respect for human life in all of its forms is paramount here or it isn't.

And it is "sisters" like you, Maureen, who have created the need for the apostolic visitation. May God shut down all of the so-called religious orders who are working so diligently to destroy His church.

Yes, it is sad. but not for the reasons you cite. It is sad that many children will not be protected from that disordered lifestyle and will grow up without a strong faith formation. It is also sad because this is probably just the first of the Catholic charities to have to close. Eventually, when all Catholic aid organizations are forced to close, this governmant will see how much the church does, and there is NO WAY the government can possibly duplicate the church's efforts, no matter how high they raise taxes. They will be begging for the church to re-open it's doors to the poor, the orphan and the hungry.

And what about the needs of the children? These are served very well by permanent pairs of same-sex parents, and far better than in institutions or in fostering arrangements.
Let the religious authorities think about the needs of the children instead of starting and ending all consideration within the confines of ideology.

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.

John 16

What if one of the things "you can not bear now" was a call for justice for people regardless of sexual orientation? What if Sister Maureen is speaking for the Spirit?

Ah, yes, the usual comments: "Change the Church's teaching because everyone disagrees with it!" or "You're making it hard to get along in this world!"

Thank God Christ did not change His teaching just to "get along" or because everyone disagreed with it. Thank God the Apostles and early Fathers of the Church had the courage to stand up for the Church's teachings and beliefs, even in the face of persecution and death. Thank God the Church reaffirmed its traditional teaching in the face of the so-called Protestant Reformation and the Sexual Revolution. Thank God the Church was led by people who actually believed Monday through Saturday in what they professed on Sunday.

I shudder to think what our Church would look like if people like Maureen Fiedler had been in charge during those times of crisis..."Come on, everyone is burning incense to Jupiter, just burn a little, read the signs of the times!"

also, nothing is stopping Catholics from adopting. the closing of Catholic Charities' adoption services is tragic, but it doesn't prevent a single Catholic from adopting a child in need.

Years ago, I thought God couldn't want such relationships to exist. They seemed unnatural. When my child grew up and identified with the GLBT community, I realized I was focused too narrowly on the outwardly physical and anatomical. I saw firsthand the difficulties, the struggles, and the inconvenience my child endured each day. Our church needs to remain open to improving and fine-tuning its teaching in this area, especially since no members of the hierarchy have the kinds of firsthand experiences millions of Catholic parents have had.

So if you do not agree with a law, rather than follow it and work within it in the process of helping those most in need of help, take your ball and
go home?

So much for charity being unconditional.

It is sad and obscene that, in the name of political correctness and theological ignorance, so many of the writers are willing to victimize the already victimized by depriving orphans of normal family life with a mother and a father in order to defend their novel notion of an ersatz "family." An older theology once spoke of "sins crying to heaven for vengeance," which included injustice to widows and orphans along with sodomy. Interestingly, the critics of the Archdiocese's decision have got a "two-fer."

I rejoice to see any Diocese get out of the adoption business. It must be very difficult for the Church to give up such a lucrative practice, and the chance to play God in determining who gains and who loses in adoptions.

For far too long, Catholic Charities in many States have blocked all attempts by adopted persons to have any knowledge of their origins. By clinging to the belief that birth parents must forever hide in shame from the children they surrendered, they deny adoptees the knowledge of their heritage while keeping birth parents in limbo about the fate their children experienced. This insistence that everyone involved (birth parents, adoptive parents and adopted persons) be kept ignorant of the truth only serves to prevent acceptance and healing of the traumas of infertility, loss and abandonment.