Question to Ponder

From a Washington Post article, written by Tim Craig and Michelle Boorstein, we learn:

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn’t change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

This promises to have significant impact on DC:

The clash escalates the dispute over the same-sex marriage proposal between the council and the archdiocese, which has generally stayed out of city politics.

Catholic Charities, the church’s social services arm, is one of dozens of nonprofit organizations that partner with the District. It serves 68,000 people in the city, including the one-third of Washington’s homeless people who go to city-owned shelters managed by the church. City leaders said the church is not the dominant provider of any particular social service, but the church pointed out that it supplements funding for city programs with $10 million from its own coffers.

What is your take on this story? Should the Catholic Church entirely remove its charitable services so as to keep to its own ethical choices, or is the threat over-the-top and discriminatory? Remember, the Catholic Church has said many times we must continue to honor the personal dignity of homosexuals (and not discriminate against them) while at the same time doing so in a way which does not support policies and positions which run contrary to Catholic doctrine (such as same-sex sacramental marriage).