Religion & Law

The Washington Post reports on a former executive of Catholic Charities, Tim Sawina, criticizing the decision to change spousal benefits policies in order to avoid legitimizing same-sex marriage.  A quote:

"Providing health care to a gay or lesbian partner -- a basic human right, according to Church teaching -- is an end in itself and no more legitimizes that marriage than giving communion to a divorced person legitimizes divorce, or giving food or shelter to an alcoholic legitimizes alcoholism."

The response from the Archdiocese of Washington -- at least the response reported by the Post -- was not exactly compelling:

The archdiocese responded to [Tim] Sawina's letter Thursday, calling it an inaccurate portrayal of the Church's position and saying that his appeal to the organization's board of directors would have no effect, because the board can't overturn the archbishop's decision.

For more analysis, check out Get Religion's coverage.  So what should the Archdiocese have said in response to Sawina's letter?