Regarding a reader's letter explaining why Catholic Charities in Boston and Washington, D.C., were "forced" to close their adoption and foster care services after refusing to place children with same-sex couples ("Catholics, gay marriage and religious liberty," Nov. 23), has anyone asked where those children who were not placed are now?

If the same-sex couples applying to adopt children were processed the same way as heterosexual couples and found acceptable, what happened to all the children they would have adopted, children who were waiting and hoping for the chance to be part of a loving family but had to be turned away because of the church's policy against gay adoption?

Now that the "charities" have picked up their toys and gone home, they've left a lot of disappointment in their wake.

Sandy B. Shapiro