For large and perhaps increasing numbers of abused and neglected children, adoption by stable and loving families remains their best, but still distant hope.

Most of you know but have probably forgotten the story of Father George Clements, the black Chicago priest, now 85 years old, who adopted a son in 1981 and raised him in the church rectory. A few years later, he adopted another; then another; and another. Today, in retirement, he lives with one of them, and together they have given him eight grandchildren.

Father Clements had asked the Catholic Church for permission to adopt after years of exhorting his parishioners at Holy Angels to no avail. The people were reluctant, and the Church was resistant. After all, he was celibate and unlikely to succeed at solo parenting in middle-age.

But prospective parents are often reluctant to take in older children who may range from truly dangerous to merely brazen. Among our own people, as in the larger population, young black boys are often shunned. But Father Clements made these four boys his own in a commitment both legal and binding. While most of us routinely call him “Father,” these four beautiful young black men call him “Dad.”

There is a market for children in America, but there’s never been much demand in that market for black children. When there is, and they are raised by white families, there is unsettling tension for everyone. Questions and fears abound:  Can anyone be black in a white family and not lose something at the core?

Can anyone white, with a black child not his own, give truth and comfort to that child about his past? And is it better to be with someone who loves you than alone and sure of what you hate?

If we believe only black parents can (or should) raise black children, then we need to be adopting them, and we’re not; at least not in terms of supply.

But for some reason, we have always seemed to stop short of adoption. And it’s strange because we’ve been taking in one another’s kids and raising them for years:  when someone gets killed, or loses his job, or is just down on his luck. We don’t let the children suffer.

In preferred markets, though, children become acquisitions, showy and high-priced possessions.

But for the children who aren’t wanted, their sorrows are unabated. Where do they go? What do they do now?

There are still nationwide community efforts like Father Clements’ “One Church, One Child” which commits the resources of a single church to the adoption of a single child, and which at its peak was active in 37 states and credited with helping to place upwards of 350,000 children.

Yes, it’s scary. And yes, it’s expensive. And yes, you’re entitled to some peace in your old age. There are a million reasons and almost as many children.

There are a million good reasons not to do it.

Be like Father Clements.

Do it anyway.
Yolande Robbins is a community correspondent for The Vicksburg Post. You may email her at yolanderobbins@fastmail.com.