by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist

The impending passage of same-sex marriage legislation in Washington DC has forced the Archdiocese to end its 80-year affiliation with the District’s child and family services in order to avoid having to place children in same-sex households.

According to MyFoxTV.com, the Archdiocese will now partner with the National Cetner for Chidlren and Families to escape a requirement of having to certify same-sex couples.

“We had 43 children, 35 families and six staff members. And what we wanted to do once we were told we were no longer eligible to be a foster care provider was to make sure we move them to another organization as seamlessly as possible,” Susan Gibbs, spokesperson for the Archdiocese, told MyFox.

“That bill made it impossible for us to provide adoption foster care services because it said we would have to certify same-sex couples as families,” says Gibbs.

The bill, which was approved by the DC Council, is currently pending in Congress where the final decision will be made.

Some councilors, such as Jim Graham, are calling the move a stunt designed to derail the legislation.

“There may be a relationship between this action and the congressional deliberations on these issues,” Graham said. “I hope that is not the case. It may not be the case. So that the Catholic Church is in essence setting up the D.C. government.”

The Senate could either challenge the legislation or do nothing at all. And by doing nothing at all, the legislation would automatically become law, as long as it’s been in the legislative process for at least 30 days.

In a statement, the Catholic League said that Archbishop Donald Wuerl “did not want to end the foster-care program, but he was left with no realistic option”.

“District lawmakers could have granted the kind of religious exemptions that would have ensured a continuation of services, but instead they sought to create a Catch-22 situation for the archdiocese. Surely they knew that Archbishop Wuerl was not going to negotiate Catholic Church teachings on marriage, yet that hardly mattered to them,” the statement said.

“The real losers are the children who were served by the Catholic Church.”

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