A Catholic couple is taking the state of Massachusetts to court over the state’s foster child policies, which prevented them from adoption because their religious beliefs “would not be affirming to a child who identified as LGBTQIA.”
Despite Michael and Catherine “Kitty” Burke passing smoothly through 30 hours of interviews and assessments from the Department of Children and Families (DCF), the agency rejected the couple’s application stemming from their religious beliefs.
“Kitty and Mike are devoutly Roman Catholic and not only attend church regularly, but they both also work for local churches as musicians,” the DCF wrote in a court filing submitted Tuesday and obtained by National Review.
“[T]heir faith is not supportive and neither are they,” the filing continues.
During conversations with Linda-Jeanne Mack, a DCF social worker who conducted multiple home interviews with the Burkes, Mack began to fixate on the couple’s Catholicism.
Mack “directly asked Kitty if she would throw a child out of the home or send a child to conversion therapy,” the filing notes. “Kitty said she would never throw a child out who is LGBTQIA+ and would not use what [Mack] described conversion therapy to be.”
During another interview, Michael shared that he had been to many gay weddings, leading Mack to ask him how he “reconciled this with his religion.” “Catholics do not hate lesbians or gay people[,] it is the act that they have an issue with because they look at marriage as between a woman and a man and that sex is an act of marriage,” the husband elaborated, according to the legal documents. Moreover, “he would likely attend his child’s wedding if they married someone of the same sex regardless of his beliefs.”
Mack ultimately described the Burkes as having “many strengths” and being “lovely people.” However, while she eventually approved of the couple’s acceptability “with conditions, specifically around religion and LGBTQIA++ related issues,” a License Review Team later denied their application. “Issue(s) of concern for which the couple’s license study was denied is based on the couple’s statements/responses regarding placement of children who identified LGBTQIA,” the body ruled.
“After months of interviews and training, and after years of heartbreak, we were on the verge of finally becoming parents. We were absolutely devastated to learn that Massachusetts would rather children sleep in the hallways of hospitals than let us welcome children in need into our home,” the couple noted in an official statement.
The decision comes at a time when the DCF is straining to accommodate at least 1,500 children within their facilities and foster homes. “The crisis has become so extreme that the state has resorted to housing children in hospitals for weeks on end. Now more than ever, Massachusetts needs the help of parents like Mike and Kitty to foster children in need,” the Becket Fund, a legal group that advocates for religious liberties and is assisting the Burkes, added in a statement following the announcement.
Lori Windham, a senior legal counsel with the organization, applauded the filing. “It takes the heroic effort of parents like Mike and Kitty to provide vulnerable children with loving homes through foster care. Massachusetts’ actions leave the Burkes, and families of other faiths, out in the cold. How can they explain this to children waiting for a home?”
The complaint was filed before the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.