Calif. archdiocese to reconsider its adoption policy

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco will reconsider its practice of permitting gays to adopt children through its social service agency after receiving an e-mail yesterday from its former archbishop, now a top Vatican official, opposing such adoptions.

''We'll be reviewing it," said Maurice Healy, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Archbishop William Levada, who is now prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, acknowledged he had allowed three children to be placed in gay households during his 10 years as archbishop of San Francisco. But yesterday he declared that no bishop should permit children to be placed with gays.

Massachusetts' Catholic bishops said last week that, because the Vatican calls gay adoptions ''gravely immoral," they cannot continue them and plan to seek an exemption from state antidiscrimination policy.

The Globe yesterday asked Healy of the San Francisco Archdiocese, in light of the Massachusetts bishops' position, whether it planned to continue allowing gay adoptions and whether Levada had supported those adoptions while in San Francisco. Healy then contacted Levada at the Vatican about this matter.

In his e-mail, Levada acknowledged that he had been told by Brian Cahill, executive director of Catholic Charities in San Francisco, that three ''difficult to place" children were adopted by gay parents there. Levada said those placements involved ''prudential judgments" about the needs of the children, church teachings, and the mission of the agency.

However, in the e-mail he said a 2003 Vatican document makes clear that ''Catholic agencies should not place children for adoption in homosexual households."

''The reasons given in the document, as well as the potential scandal for the faithful should an archdiocesan agency act contrary to the clear teaching of the church's magisterium, require that a Catholic bishop follow this clear guidance from the Holy See in his oversight of Catholic diocesan agencies," he wrote.

Hours before receiving Levada's e-mail, in an interview with the Globe, the spokesman for the San Francisco Archdiocese had defended the practice of allowing gay adoptions.

The developments in San Francisco are occurring as Catholic Charities in Boston, the social services arm of the archdiocese, continues its struggle with the issue. The state's four bishops suffered setbacks on Beacon Hill last week in their effort to build support for an exemption from antibias laws. Eight of the board's 42 members have resigned in protest over the bishops' plans.

Cahill, of Catholic Charities of San Francisco, had said this week that he was concerned that his agency might be required to stop gay adoptions, given events in Boston. According to his updated figures, he said, in the past five years, of the 136 children adopted through his agency, five were placed with gay or lesbian parents. Cahill said he was aware of the Vatican pronouncement but believed that the gay adoptions were appropriate, given the agency's religious mission to ''serve the needs of vulnerable children."

Levada's successor is Archbishop George Niederauer, who took over about three weeks ago.

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