the grounds that Catholic hospitals would not participate directly in providing abortion and the arrangement would allow Caritas to deliver much-needed services to the poor. The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts criticized the arrangement: "With Caritas Christi now thoroughly embedded in the culture of death, we are now facing the end, in Massachusetts at least, of Catholic medical resistance to abortion and contraception. This tragic state of affairs is the personal responsibility of the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O'Malley." In June 2009, Caritas Christi, at O'Malley's insistence, terminated its partial ownership of Celticare. O'Malley said: Anti-abortion activist groups varied in their responses. Some praised O'Malley's decision, but others continued to object that Caritas, as a participant in CommonwealthCare, is still required, even as it refuses to provide abortions, to engage in abortion referrals. Catholic Charities and gay adoption Massachusetts has included sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination statute since 1989, and it legalized same-sex marriage beginning May 17, 2004. Between about 1985 and 1995, Catholic Charities of Boston, which accepted state funds in support of its adoption services program, placed 13 children with gay couples out of 720 adoptions. Catholic Charities President J. Bryan Hehir explained the practice: "If we could design the system ourselves, we would not participate in adoptions to gay couples, but we can't. We have to balance various goods." In December 2005, the lay-dominated board of Catholic Charities of Boston voted unanimously to continue gay adoptions. On March 10, 2006, after unsuccessfully seeking help from Governor Mitt Romney in obtaining an exemption from the state's anti-discrimination statute, O'Malley and leaders of Catholic Charities announced that the agency would terminate its adoption work effective June 30, rather than continue to place children under the guardianship of LBGT couples. He said "This is a difficult and sad day for Catholic Charities. We have been doing adoptions for more than 100 years." Honours Grand-Cross of the Order of Prince Henry, Portugal (28 June 2016) Bibliography EAN 560-3658113471 See also Catholic Church hierarchy Catholic Church in the United States Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States List of Catholic bishops of the United States Lists of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops References External links Cardinal Seán's blog Boston Archdiocese page for Archbishop Seán O'Malley Photographs of Archbishop O'Malley at March 19, 2005 Boston Men's Conference Catholic Pages Biography of Archbishop O'Malley Examination of the ring of O'Malley with