Seven quit charity over policy of bishops
Deplore effort to exclude same-sex adoptions
By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff
March 2, 2006

Seven members of the board of Catholic Charities of Boston, including prominent business and media leaders, announced their resignations yesterday, saying that the Massachusetts bishops' effort to prohibit gays from adopting children from Catholic social service agencies ''threatens the very essence of our Christian mission."

Among those who quit was Peter Meade, executive vice president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and chairman of the board until last month. Meade expressed concern that the bishops' position on gay adoptions will alienate Catholics in the state and reduce much-needed donations for the agency's charitable work.

We ''cannot participate in an effort to pursue legal permission to discriminate against Massachusetts citizens who want to play their part in building strong families," the seven members said in a statement.

The resignations are the latest development in a high-profile collision between leaders of the state's largest religious group and a population that increasingly embraces gay rights. The rest