Mass bishops opt to give Catholic teaching a try

Vatican teaching states that adopting children to homosexual couples is "gravely immoral."

How unambigious is that? I get it. Do you get it?

Well, after the four Massachusetts bishops spent three months of studying the "theological and practical impact" of adhering to Church teaching, it looks like they get it, too.

Now all they have to do is convince the state. And a bunch of lay people who evidently call the shots.

This decision to seek an exemption from state anti-discrimination rules pits the bishops against the 42-member board of Catholic Charities of Boston, which is made up of some of Boston's most prominent lay Catholics. The board voted unanimously in December in support of continuing to allow gay couples to adopt children.

Prominent Catholic[TM] Peter Meade is in a predictable snit.

''This is an unnecessary, unmitigated disaster for children, Catholic Charities, and the Archdiocese of Boston," said Peter Meade, who remains a board member.

Let the legal games begin.

Reportedly, the bishops have hired the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray to help them figure out what to do. (Ropes & Gray does not come cheap.)

The Massachusetts Catholic Conference weighs in...if anybody can translate it.

In a prepared statement yesterday, he [Ed Saunders, director] said that while the bishops want to maintain the ''good work" that Catholic Charities does in the area of adoption, they must also deal with ''substantial first amendment issues that arise from any government regulations which force Catholic social service agencies to provide services that conflict with church doctrine."

Call me simple-minded — (hey, that's just a saying!) — but the solution seems simple to me. In fact, I don't even see a problem.

Vatican teaching states that adopting children to homosexual couples is "gravely immoral."

We're not supposed to do "gravely immoral" things.

So what's the problem?

Source: The Boston Globe