There is a controversey brewing in the Archdiocese of Washington over a bill currently before the D.C. City Council that would legalize same-sex “marriages” in our nation’s capital. The Archdiocese of Washington is upset because the legislation, known as the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, could force Catholic Charities to extend benefits to same-sex couples because it receives money from the city. According to a press release from the archdiocese, the bill could also force Catholic Charities to facilitate adoptions to same-sex couples. Rather than allow either of these things to happen, the Archdiocese of Washington has said that it will be forced to end its contracts with the city to provide a variety of services to the poor. In a recent Washington Post article, Catholic Charities President and CEO Edward J. Orzechowski is quoted as saying that if the archdiocese is forced to abandon its contracts with the city, programs such as medical clinics and GED tutoring programs could be hurt. The D.C. City Council, meanwhile, seems unwilling to compromise with the archdiocese on this issue.
The Church is really getting a bad rap in this whole controversy. For example, Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak wrote in a Nov. 13 article that “officials at the Archdiocese of Washington and Catholic Charities are telling our city’s most vulnerable people — homeless families, sick children, low-income mothers — that they are willing to throw them on the table as a bargaining chip.”
This is not what is happening at all. The Church is not saying that the legalization of same-sex marriages in the District of Columbia alone would force it to stop providing services to the poor. Orzechowski even told the Washington Post that Catholic Charities is “going to continue to serve those in need. But how we do that, where we do it and the manner in which we do it is what’s at risk.” What the Church is simply saying is that this law would require it to go against the teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman. Granted, the legislation would not require the Church to perform same-sex weddings, but it would require it to provide spousal benefits to same-sex couples, which is bascially like asking it to recognize such relationships as legitimate marriages. As a result, organizations like Catholic Charities that accept city funds to provide services to our less fortunate brothers and sisters may have to refuse city funds, and thus scale back those services, if the legislation does not exempt them from providing spousal benefits to same-sex couples.
In my opinion, the D.C. City Council is the one who is in the wrong here. All it would need to do to end this impasse is to simply add an exemption to the bill that is under consideration to exempt the Church from providing spousal benefits and adoption services to same-sex couples. No laws should be passed to force those in the Church to disregard their religious beliefs. Granted, the Church would still not be happy that same-sex marriage is now legal in Washington, D.C., but it would still be able to continue providing the same services to the city’s poor as it does now.
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