Seven quit charity over policy of bishops

Seven members of the board of Catholic Charities of Boston, including prominent business and media leaders, announced their resignations yesterday, saying that the Massachusetts bishops' effort to prohibit gays from adopting children from Catholic social service agencies ''threatens the very essence of our Christian mission."

Among those who quit was Peter Meade, executive vice president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and chairman of the board until last month. Meade expressed concern that the bishops' position on gay adoptions will alienate Catholics in the state and reduce much-needed donations for the agency's charitable work.

We ''cannot participate in an effort to pursue legal permission to discriminate against Massachusetts citizens who want to play their part in building strong families," the seven members said in a statement.

The resignations are the latest development in a high-profile collision between leaders of the state's largest religious group and a population that increasingly embraces gay rights.

The 42-member board unanimously voted in December in favor of continuing gay adoptions at Catholic Charities. Along with Meade, the members who resigned are Geri Denterlein, president of Denterlein Worldwide Public Affairs; Donna Gittens, chief executive officer of Causemedia; Paul LaCamera, general manager of The WBUR Group; Brian Leary, a former television reporter and partner at Gadsby Hannah; Colette Phillips; president of Colette Phillips Communications; and Micho Spring, chairman of Weber Shandwick New England.

Meade said he has already heard from some current contributors to Catholic Charities who say they will pull their donations because of the bishops' plan. Last year, the agency raised $7 million, roughly 20 percent of its income, from individual donors, foundations, and corporations.

The resignations were announced as Governor Mitt Romney met for nearly an hour yesterday to discuss the issue with Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley and the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, president of Catholic Charities. The bishops have said they deserve an exemption from the state's antidiscrimination laws, which prohibit discrimination against gays, on religious freedom grounds. The Vatican has described gay adoptions as ''gravely immoral."

On Tuesday, Romney signaled his openness to hearing the bishops' request and discussing the issue. Yesterday, in a statement after the meeting, Romney said that he wants Catholic Charities to be able to continue doing adoptions in a way that does not conflict with Catholic principles.

''I would like to see the Church continue to provide this service," Romney said. ''I believe religious institutions should be able to carry out their mission of helping people without violating their faith."

However, in the statement, Romney repeated previous remarks that he cannot simply waive the state's antidiscrimination law through an executive order.

But he left open the possibility that he could support the church's efforts in another way. ''Ultimately, legislation may need to be filed to provide an exemption based on religious principles," Romney's statement said. ''I look forward to continuing our discussions with the church so that we can assist them in performing their charitable work in a way that does not violate their religious beliefs."

Later, in response to a reporter's question, a Romney spokesman declined to say whether the governor opposes gay adoptions.

''The governor has said many times that he believes the ideal setting for the raising of a child is a home with a mother and a father," said spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom.

Asked again for Romney's view on gay adoptions, Fehrnstrom responded: ''I'm going to let the 'ideal' statement speak for itself."

O'Malley and Hehir left the meeting through a side exit, bypassing reporters. O'Malley issued a statement saying he appreciated the chance to meet with the governor and described the meeting as ''a preliminary one."

''The Catholic agencies in the dioceses of Massachusetts wish to continue the work of adoption and seek an exemption in order to comply with Catholic teaching on marriage and the family," O'Malley's statement said.

The bishops have previously raised the possibility of seeking passage of legislation that would grant them an exemption, but state Representative Eugene L. O'Flaherty, House chairman of the joint committee on the judiciary, has said ''there would not be an appetite to entertain that" on Beacon Hill.

That leaves a third option, a court challenge by the bishops on the grounds that the state antidiscrimination policy violates their religious freedom. Before that can happen, say several legal specialists, the bishops would have to specifically file for an exemption with the state and, after being rejected, go to court to challenge the decision.

Any legal action by the bishops is likely to attract a counterattack from gay organizations, who view the bishops' plan as profoundly offensive, saying it sweepingly casts all gay people as unfit parents.

Gary Buseck, legal director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston, said his organization, which led the legal fight for same-sex marriage, is watching the case very closely and would consider taking action to fight the bishops' plan.

Buseck said he still holds out hope that the bishops will change their minds and allow the status quo to continue.

Over the past 20 years, Catholic Charities of Boston placed 13 children with same-sex couples, a fraction of the 720 children they placed in adoptive homes during that time period. The 13 children were all foster children who were considered hard to place, either because they were older or because they had special needs.

Catholic Charities has been handling adoptions for more than 100 years and is one of state's leading adoption agencies. If the bishops fail to win an exemption, but insist on excluding gay couples from adopting, they risk losing their adoption license altogether.

The seven members of the Catholic Charities board who resigned said they pray that the bishops will reconsider.

Denterlein said she resigned with deep sadness, because she feels such loyalty to Catholic Charities, which also offers day-care services, immigration assistance, and homeless aid. But she said she could not go along with the bishops' view that gay adoptions are harmful to children. ''We each had to wrestle with our own conscience on this issue," she said.

Meade said the bishops are sending an unfair message to the 13 gay couples who have already adopted through Catholic Charities. ''Does this new policy suddenly render the love and care they have given their children worthless? Of course not," he said.

But Edward Saunders -- executive director of the Massachusetts Catholics Conference, which represents the bishops -- has said that church doctrine on the issue of gay adoptions is unequivocal. The document, written in 2003, states that allowing children to be adopted by same-sex couples ''would actually mean doing violence to these children." It ends by saying that gay adoptions are ''gravely immoral and in open contradiction to the principle . . . that the best interests of the child, as the weaker and more vulnerable party, are to be the paramount consideration in every case."

Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com.