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For Your Marriage

Adoption and Foster Care

“To adopt a child is a great work of love. When it is done, much is given, but much is also received. It is a true exchange of gifts.” – St. John Paul II, Address to Adoptive Families

Many families open their homes to a child in need through fostering and adoption. This “great work of love” is a reflection of how the Father has adopted each one of us as beloved sons and daughters. The Catholic Church also admires the bravery of birth parents who entrust their children to others when they know they cannot provide the loving home their children need.

Adopting or fostering a child can be a difficult process for all involved. In the United States, there are many different ways to foster and adopt and the laws vary by state. If you are considering adoption or fostering, look into the adoption services provided by your state or city’s Catholic Charities Office or reach out to your diocese’s Marriage and Family Life Office for referrals to local adoption agencies.

As Pope Francis wrote in Amoris Laetitia: “The choice of adoption and foster care expresses a particular kind of fruitfulness in the marriage experience, and not only in cases of infertility…They make people aware that children, whether natural, adoptive or taken in foster care, are persons in their own right who need to be accepted, loved and cared for, and not just brought into this world.” (AL, 180)

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Related Topics: Adoption, Family Life, Foster Care

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