The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is threatening to cut its social services programs if Washington, D.C. passes a law allowing same-sex marriage. With this announcement, the archdiocese makes it clear that it would rather revoke charitable services to city groups it has long believed in than allow the government to offer equal treatment to homosexual employees and couples seeking to adopt.
The cuts the archdiocese has threatened would come from programs in adoption, homelessness and health care offered by Catholic Charities, the archdiocese's social services organization. Catholic Charities is threatening to punish the poor because of actions taken by legislators. One third of Washington's homeless go to shelters run by Catholic Charities, and the archdiocese's social services currently serve 68,000 people. Why should these people in need suffer because the Church does not approve of a new law? The archdiocese's reaction does not match the subject or scale of its provocation. Revoking charitable aid to the needy of an entire city is an inappropriate and unethical means of attempting to affect policy.
The archdiocese is demanding that the same-sex marriage bill be changed to exempt Catholic Charities from its anti-discrimination clauses. The Catholic archdiocese does not want to be forced to pay employee benefits to same-sex spouses or offer equal adoption services to gay couples. If such an amendment were made, the bill would allow Catholic charity services to treat people who are married to someone of the same sex differently. Washington officials have rightly responded that religious organizations should not receive special exemptions from legislation meant to protect the civil liberties of all citizens.
In attempting to leverage the government through conditional charity, the Catholic archdiocese of D.C. has proven itself capable of radical, inappropriate tactics in pursuit of its objectives, which too often blur the line between the political and the religious. District lawmakers should not allow these threats to influence public policy, especially given that the archdiocese is seeking an exemption that would allow it to discriminate. Catholic Charities' stated mission is "to provide service to people in need." The organization should return to this mission statement, and re-evaluate whether being forced to help a few members of a minority it opposes is justification for abandoning its commitment to the needy population at large.
