by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

Catholic officials in Colorado have threatened to close their adoption services if Gov. John Hickenlooper signs the state's newly passed civil unions law. The measure cleared the state legislature March 12 on a 39-26 House vote, with two Republicans joining all the body's Democrats in favor. Hickenlooper has promised to sign it.

The governor's signature 'may threaten the policies which guide us in the vital work to find families for Colorado's children in need,' officials of Catholic Charities of the Denver Archdiocese said in a statement.

While the new law exempts religious organizations from performing or recognizing same-sex unions, it does not allow religion-based adoption agencies to refuse to place children with Gay or Lesbian couples.

'There are hundreds of LGBT couples who want to raise kids, and these kids who are in the foster system have for some reason been taken away from their biological parents for abuse or neglect,' openly Gay Colorado House Speaker Mark Ferrandino said.

'What they need more than anything is a family who loves them and wants to raise them. We should not deny them the opportunity to have two loving parents, be they two women, two men, or a man and a woman.'

Denver's Catholic archbishop, Samuel J. Aquila, released a statement March 12 asserting that the Catholic Church 'recognizes and affirms the dignity of every human person,' but adding that the church does not view all relationships as equal.

CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE?
'The ability for religious-based institutions to provide foster care and adoption services for Colorado's children is now dangerously imperiled,' Aquila said. 'Marriage is a stabilizing institution at the foundation of civil society. Religious liberty is a civil rights issue. Both have been grievously harmed.'

Catholic Charities spokesperson Tracy Murphy said her organization would not announce any concrete decision regarding adoption services in Colorado until the civil unions bill was signed into law, but the organization previously threatened to withdraw adoption services in Colorado unless the bill incorporated specific exemptions for religious organizations to withhold adoptions from same-sex couples.

To qualify for adoption through Catholic Charities, prospective parents are required to be legally married, meet minimum age and length-of-marriage requirements, and pass eligibility requirements combining both state and internal policies. Murphy would not disclose the number of children the agency is attempting to place.

In contrast, Lutheran Family Services, an agency that facilitated 38 adoptions in Colorado in the last fiscal year, said it has no plans to withdraw services from Colorado as a result of the civil unions bill.

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