A Christian adoption agency that receives money from Choose Life license plate fees said it does not place children with Roman Catholic couples because their religion conflicts with the agency’s “Statement of Faith.”
Bethany Christian Services stated the policy in a letter to a Jackson couple this month, and another Mississippi couple said they were rejected for the same reason last year.
“It has been our understanding that Catholicism does not agree with our Statement of Faith,” Bethany’s state director Karen Stewart wrote. “Our practice to not accept applications from Catholics was an effort to be good stewards of an adoptive applicant’s time, money and emotional energy.”
I checked out this Statement of Faith. I can’t find anything in it that is incompatible with Catholicism. I’ve asked them to be specific about where the conflict is. I also let them know that I thought they ought to give a straight answer since they receive money from the government. I’m not holding my breath.
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I’m not seeing either, Matt. I can only guess that they may have a qualm with Catholic confession to a priest for a forgiveness of sin. But even that is a stretch as far as their statement of faith goes.
I just want to state a fact that Bethany found a loving home for my baby 15 years ago when I was 17. I am catholic and was never told I could not have chosen a catholic family. I think that people begin to look for problems when they feel that they have been served an injustice. Sometimes people ‘think’ they know why an answer was given when in all actuality they did not have all of the facts. Be careful and separate information that you ‘think you know about’ and what you ‘actually know for a fact’!
It’s unfortunate that the story I linked to is no longer online. If it were, you would have seen that Bethany Christian Services of Mississippi did refuse to allow adoptions by some families because they were Catholic.
I read on another website that they have changed their policy. I am very happy about this because we are looking to use them to adopt an infant.
I read through the “Statement of Faith”. The only thing that I could see that they may have a problem with is that they say that the Scriptures are the ONLY authority. In the Catholic Church, we see it as Tradition (with a big T) and the Scriptures. The Scriptures were passed down through Tradition and then put together through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the Magisterium of the Church in the forth century. Therefore, we need them as the Word of God but the Church also must be open to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit today
Maybe this is why the difference came about.
When my husband and I pursued Catholic Charities for adoption, they turned us down for the caucasian, no health problems children because we are not Catholic. I was shocked when I received the news because my husband and I would give a child a tremendously loving and caring home in which to be reared. Our faith I guess you could say is Non-Denominational, but since we aren’t we are only eligible for special needs babies such as “Bi-Racial Babies.” I was truly offended again. The adoption process is grueling and torturesome enough. When families are willing to go through it, we have to face the rejection of such missions. It’s just unbelievable.
The original news story is available through archive.org:
http://web.archive.org/web/20061013202132/http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/07/15/adoption.church.ap/index.html
To John — Catholics don’t get forgiven by a priest in confession — the priest is a witness, someone to recognize physically that you ‘told on yourself’ in front of a priest– YOU ARE CONFESSIONG TO GOD ( Christ ) in front of or in the presence of a priest ( is all ).
the priest verifies you’ve cleaned the slate — that you asked GOD for forgiveness and offers God’s blessing — and explains God has forgiven you.
Protestants never get this right — and before we get the where does this stem from in the Bible ( the real Bible, the CATHOLIC Bible ) not the watered down, changed “I can think what I like and twist anything around Bible”
The passage reads where Christ says to the apostle Peter ( and the fist Catholic Pope ) — “The sins you forgive are forgiven, the sins you retain are retained” — God forgives, the priest is a witness and the priest confirms God’s loving grace.
Someday the C student protestants of the world will figure it out.
Good luck with that,
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[...] A few days ago, I wrote about Catholic families looking to adopt being turned away by Bethany Christian Services of Mississippi. [...]