ST. PAUL, Minn. — In the coming months, Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis will close its Seton Prenatal Clinic and cease its adoption program.
Citing declining numbers, and changes in health care regulations and industry trends, Tim Marx, the agency’s president and CEO, said the clinic, which provides health care to low-income or uninsured women, will close in August and is working on a transition plan.
Its adoption services, which Marx said had been around since the 1940s, will regrettably end in December and, like the clinic, are going through a transition period. Marx said Catholic Charities will retain records of past adoptions.full article at The Compass
Once coordinating more than 200 adoptions a year, the agency facilitated only seven in 2015. Marx attributes the decline to society’s changing mores and said the ability of same-sex couples to adopt children plays no role in the program ending. Catholic Charities will work with individual couples on their own transition plans before focusing on future referrals.
Catholic Charities has long ceased being a "by Catholics, for Catholics" type of organization. For example, even though a child may have been born a Catholic, it would provide adoption services to say a Hindu couple to adopt the Catholic child and cease said child's faith practice. That's not to say adoption services to Hindu couples should not be given, only that ultimately it has been making less sense for Catholic Charities to provide adoption services at all. Some services like (legitimate) healthcare does make sense for a Catholic organization to make available to all people. In a similar fashion, my current credit union used to be the Holy Trinity Catholic Parish credit union in La Crosse. Perhaps ideally a parish would have a credit union, and practicing on Catholic principles (goodbye usury), but practically speaking both are likely not tenable in the current environment.
2 comments:
I think that is a rather unfair characterization of "Catholic Charities". Most probably do not know that each diocese has a Catholic Charities organization. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of La Crosse has done incredible work over the last eleven years to become an organization that faithfully carries out the work of the Church which naturally follows from the Gospel. CCDL has become an organization that actively seeks to recognize the needs of the communities which are home to the local Church of the Diocese of La Crosse. CCDL is an excellent example of an organization that has NOT outgrown its usefulness, but has rather evolved in such a way as to meet the needs of the contemporary situation in which the Church finds herself. I was on the board for nine years, terming out one year ago.
Sorry, I didn't mean that to be a knock on Catholic Charities, they do lots of great work. My point was only that >adoption services< no longer make sense, and that I expect other Catholic Charities entities to also discontinue >just< that service. CCs in the state have not outgrown their usefulness(which is why I never said that). I donate to my local Catholic Charities and will continue to do so, and have family that has worked there.
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