BOSTON (AP) – The Boston Archdiocese’s Catholic Charities said March 10 it would stop providing adoption services because of a state law allowing gays and lesbians to adopt, The Associated Press reported.

The social services arm of the Roman Catholic archdiocese, which has provided adoption services for about two decades, said the law runs counter to church teachings on homosexuality.

“The world was very different when Charities began this ministry at the threshold of the twentieth-century,” the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir and trustees chair Jeffrey Kaneb said in a joint statement. “The world changed often and we adapted the ministry to meet changing times and needs. At all times we sought to place the welfare of children at the heart of our work.

“But now, we have encountered a dilemma we cannot resolve,” they said.

The state’s four Catholic bishops said earlier this month that the law threatens the church’s religious freedom by forcing it to do something it considers immoral.

Eight members of Catholic Charities board later stepped down in protest of the bishops’ stance. The 42-member board had voted unanimously in December to continue considering households headed by same-sex couples for adoptions.

The group said it would discontinue the adoption services once it completes its contract with the state. It wasn’t immediately clear when the contract ends.

Gov. Mitt Romney said he’s trying to find a way to exempt Catholic social services agencies from a law requiring them to consider gays and lesbians as adoptive parents.

Romney said he doesn’t have the power to unilaterally exempt Catholic Charities from the state’s anti-discrimination laws. But he said he wants to let Catholic agencies continue placing children with adoptive parents without violating the teachings of their faith.

“The church through its Catholic Charities provides an extraordinary service to the commonwealth by placing many special-needs children every year in homes,” Romney told reporters. “That’s a service I hope we will continue to be able to avail ourselves of.”

Romney did not elaborate on what options he is exploring. Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, broke with Romney, saying she’s opposed to exempting the church from the anti-discrimination laws.

In the past two decades, 13 of the 720 children placed with adoptive families by Catholic Charities have been placed in households headed by same-sex couples.

Earlier this month, Romney met in his office with church leaders, including Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley, and said religious institutions should be able to help people without violating their faith.

“Ultimately, legislation may need to be filed to provide an exemption based on religious principles,” Romney said in a statement released after the meeting.

Any legislation seeking to grant the Catholic Church an exemption could face a tough time on Beacon Hill.

House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi said he supports the state’s anti-discrimination law, including the part allowing gay and lesbian parents to adopt.

“The state’s top priority should be placing children in loving and caring homes, regardless of adoptive parents’ race, ethnicity and sexual orientation,” DiMasi said last week. “Denying same-sex couples the right to be considered is discriminatory and runs counter to the principle that all citizens are created equal under the law.”

Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, said she is baffled why the issue is coming up now.

“We fought this battle from 1985 to 1991 and the courts settled the question in the early 1990s,” she said. “If the Catholic Church had a problem with gay adoptions, the question was resolved over a decade ago. It makes no sense that they are raising it now.”

Geri Denterlein, one of the Catholic Charities board members who resigned, said she had no inside knowledge why the bishops asked for the exemption now.

“I think it’s something related to Rome and how the Vatican is thinking about the United States and gay marriage,” she said.