Several times this week I’ve been told in one way or another that the issue of gay marriage is last year’s news. Unfortunately for now, the marriage question is one that has been (temporarily??) lost, except for those lucky enough to live in Massachusetts! The emerging issue of the day is over gay people adopting children, whether they are the children of strangers or the offspring of a same-sex partner.

While gay men and women in Massachusetts have the right to civil marriage, they are no longer able to adopt children through Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston. Catholic Charities is ending its adoption services — a ministry it has engaged in for more than a century — simply because it is unwilling to follow the Commonwealth’s anti-discrimination law and accept gay men and women to serve as foster and adoptive parents. The issue is getting lots of coverage in Boston and elsewhere: