Responding to Washington's adoption of a law that makes same-sex marriage legal in the city, the local branch of Catholic Charities has restricted its offer of health coverage to employees' spouses, reports The Washington Post.

Workers at the diocese-run charity, which receives $22-million from the city to provide social services, were told Monday that it will not offer health benefits to the spouses of new employees or current staff members who are not already enrolled in its plan. The District of Columbia's gay-marriage law takes effect Wednesday.

The charity said that with the health-insurance change and a prior move to shift its foster-care services to another provider, it can comply with both the Washington law and church teaching and thus will not cut off city contracts, as it had threatened to do before last year's vote on the marriage measure.

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