Any Catholics in the Boston chancery?

Archdiocesan agency helps gays adopt children
October 22, 2005
BOSTON --The social services agency of the Archdiocese of Boston has allowed 13 foster children to be adopted by same-sex couples in the past two decades, despite Vatican teachings against homosexuality.

Silly me. I'm just a public school kid, and I don't know much serious moral theology at all, but obviously I know more than the Catholic Charities board or the Archbishop of Boston. I'll quote (without permission) from a priest I know, who recently applied the principle to another moral issue of our day:

Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu. (Goodness arises from an integral cause, evil arises from any defect whatsoever)

What does this axiom mean? It means that the moral goodness or evil of an act can be determined by a thoughtful assessment of the act itself, as well as its attending circumstances. A good act, attended by good circumstances, is said to have an integral cause, and thus can be safely performed by Catholics; but however admirable an act may be in other respects, if even one of the circumstances is gravely evil, the act cannot be recommended to Catholics.

Well, Bishop Sean, there you have it.