JOLIET, Ill. (CNA/EWTN News) — As civil unions begin in Illinois, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Joliet has announced that it has stopped processing applications for new foster or adoptive parents.
The diocese cited its “religious practice” of not placing children with unmarried, cohabiting couples of the same sex or opposite sex, a practice under increasing pressure from state law.
The June 1 letter from Glenn Van Cura, executive director of Catholic Charities in Joliet, notified the state government that the agency is “temporarily suspending the processing of new foster care and adoption applications.”
It did not say how or when the application process could resume, the Naperville Sun reports. The agency presently handles 210 foster care and adoption cases.
The letter did not mention civil unions, which went into effect on June 1. However, the law which created legal unions for same-sex and opposite-sex couples has already caused Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockford to announce an end to its foster care and adoption services.
Catholic Charities in Peoria has also said that it will stop licensing new foster and adoptive parents. All the Catholics agencies said they would continue working with the children they have already placed in homes.
Kendall Marlowe, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, said this was “not a workable solution” in the long term, as they will eventually run out of homes in which to place children.
“We would have been in this situation even without the civil-union legislation,” he said.
Lawyers for the department and the Illinois attorney general were reviewing whether private agencies that take state money for adoption can refuse to license homosexual couples without violating the state Constitution and Illinois human-rights law, Marlowe reported.
The Illinois Legislature hastily passed the civil-unions law late last year.
Catholic Charities had sought an amendment to the civil-union law that would allow it to refer homosexual couples to other agencies that license foster and adoptive parents, but that amendment failed.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago and the Catholic Conference of Illinois also opposed the bill because of its potential impact on the Church’s work in adoption and foster care and because it threatened to diminish the status of marriage in public life.
The Diocese of Rockford announced their intention to stop public adoptions last week.
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In Massachusetts it’s apparent that even if an adoption agency chooses to reject state funding and contracts, that it would still be required to place children with same-sex couples (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/191kgwgh.asp). Can someone answer the question as to whether the same is true in Illinois, or can Catholic agencies get around this by relying on private sources of funding? This is often used as a defense by those who imply that it’s only the acceptance of state funding that obligates Church-run adoption agencies to place children with same-sex couples. In Massachusetts at least this has proven to be a red herring, and it would be interesting to know if the story is the same in other states that permit same-sex “marriage” or civil unions.
This is bold social engineering. Sad indeed. Think of the children.
What I am not understanding is why the Bishops don’t challenge this is court aa a freedom of religion issue. After all if no tax dollars are used we should be free to place children according to our religious beliefs.
Cynthia, you make a good point. They actually considered this in Massachusetts, but didn’t pursue it because of the cost and no guarantee that they would win (even though I think it’s a pretty clear-cut case). Perhaps with this sort of thing now happening in many more places, someone will pursue it.
Maybe the government can just stop attacking the Catholic Church.
The Obama administration is more interested in getting religions to adopt his secualar theology that the welfare or health of Children: If this were not so, then these secular values would not be imposed and Catholic institutions could help those in need. Even after being penalized in the bidding process due to the Church’s conscience; the government STILL does not grant to the Church even if the WIN the bidding process.
In the past I never called Obama evil. I now think he is.
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