DC Archdiocese Ends Foster-Care Program Over Same-Sex Marriage Bill

2/17/10-by Paula Brooks
The Archdiocese of Washington has decided to drop its foster care program over a dispute on pending same-sex marriage law with the District of Columbia.

The decision, posted late yesterday on the archdiocese’s Web site, announced that the archdiocese had ceased its 80-year-old program Feb. 1, the day the city’s contract expired with Catholic Charities, the church’s social services arm.

“We regret that our efforts to avoid this outcome were not successful,” Catholic Charities Chief Executive Officer Ed Orzechowski said in a statement. “Foster care has been an important ministry for us for many decades. We worked very hard to be able to continue to provide these services in the District.”

Catholic Charities, which runs more than 20 social service programs for the District, transferred its entire foster-care program — 43 children, 35 families and seven staff members — to another provider, the National Center for Children and Families.

The city’s same-sex marriage law, scheduled to go into effect March 2, requires all entities that serve the general public to provide services to LGBT couples, with exemptions allowed to religious groups for performing marriages or for those entities which do not provide services the public.

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