Posted on 12/30/2011 8:58:25 AM PST by SeekAndFind
After the Illinois state legislature passed a requirement that says adoption and foster-care agencies — to be eligible for state money — must consider same-sex couples as potential foster-care or adoptive parents, the Roman Catholic bishops in Illinois decided to shut down most of the Catholic Charities affiliates in the state. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened: Massachusetts and Washington D.C. both passed similar requirements — and many Catholic Charities affiliates closed down in those states, as well. The New York Times reports:
For the nation’s Catholic bishops, the Illinois requirement is a prime example of what they see as an escalating campaign by the government to trample on their religious freedom while expanding the rights of gay people. The idea that religious Americans are the victims of government-backed persecution is now a frequent theme not just for Catholic bishops, but also for Republican presidential candidates and conservative evangelicals.
“In the name of tolerance, we’re not being tolerated,” said Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Ill., a civil and canon lawyer who helped drive the church’s losing battle to retain its state contracts for foster care and adoption services. …
Critics of the church argue that no group has a constitutional right to a government contract, especially if it refuses to provide required services.
But Anthony R. Picarello Jr., general counsel and associate general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, disagreed. “It’s true that the church doesn’t have a First Amendment right to have a government contract,” he said, “but it does have a First Amendment right not to be excluded from a contract based on its religious beliefs.
This is tough stuff. My instinct is to think that the Illinois requirement does constitute a violation of religious liberty — but I’m not sure. The free exercise of religion clause protects religiously motivated conduct as well as belief (e.g. proselytization, refusing work on one’s sabbath, even sacrificing animals at a worship service), so Catholic Charities is well within its rights to refuse to place children with gay couples and still operate. Because Catholic Charities can’t operate foster care services without a contract with the state, the denial of the contract on the basis of CC’s fidelity to the teaching of the Catholic Church seems like a clear violation of religious freedom. But the mere denial of funding — no matter how heavily dependent CC is on it for its operations — is surely not. Freedom and funding, after all, are not the same.
Either way, though, let’s not forget the broader picture: The decision of the Illinois legislature to initiate the requirement in the first place — knowing it would hamstring Catholic Charities, which provides essential services — demonstrates an appalling willingness to allow an adult agenda — the mainstream acceptance of gay behavior — to supersede children’s interests. The spokesman for the state’s child welfare agency has said he thinks the child welfare system Catholic Charities helped to build is strong enough to withstand CC’s departure. But it’s hard to believe the shuttering of so many CC affiliates won’t make the burden of finding a home for children in need even greater.
Then, too, research suggests the healthiest and most stable environment for a child is to live with a married couple. Of those born to cohabiting parents, the majority see their parents split up before they hit age 16 — and children living with a mother and her unmarried partner are more likely to have behavioral problems and lower academic performance. That Catholic Charities wanted to work to place children in that optimal living environment but now can’t is heartbreaking no matter what the reasoning for the new requirement.
At last, a straight up article on the subject.
The bishops should start lobbying for tax credits for donations to private social services organizations such as Catholic Charities and The Salvation Army. Cut out the middle man.
They did the right thing they closed them up.
What does that mean?? I don’t think it’s a cut and dried as you think.
Doesn’t the state have to pay for children in foster care?? So will they essentially cut off funding the families that are serviced by the Catholic Charities?
Catholic Charities finds and trains families for foster care, right? CC could somehow find other funding to do that. But then does that mean the state will no longer place children with CC trained families? And does that mean if the family is trained/sponsored by CC that the family will not receive funding for foster care of a child?
It’s not “all about the money” for CC as you seem to imply, it’s about the children who will once again be raped by the system.
Children have a right to be raised by a mother AND a father, period.
Shame on the state of Illinois for legislating that a child doesn’t deserve a mom and a dad.
Congratulations, Democrats.
Calm down, I implied no such thing, if by "money" you mean profit.
Catholic Charities finds and trains families for foster care, right?
No.
But then does that mean the state will no longer place children with CC trained families?
There's your false premise again.
In Illinois, which is what this article is about, the state contracts with various religious bodies to investigate potential foster homes - I know this from personal experience. The state has found that it's cheaper for them that way. This is primarily about adoptions anyway.
The state has simply said that any organization which will not adopt kids to queers will no longer receive state money.
Before you get all bent out of shape with what I'm about to tell you let me explain that I have donated to the local Catholic Charities for over 20 years and I'm not Catholic. They are the only organization anywhere near me that is doing anything positive about teen girls and abortions.
I also donate to the Illinois State Baptist Children's Home, which is basically an orphanage but they also are in the adoption business. It is non profit and 100% funded by private sources.
If you want government hand outs you have to play by government rules and I can promise you that the Baptist organization I mentioned would not adopt kids into a known homosexual "family". They are not subject to state rules because they do not nor never have accepted government (Tax payer)money
Kudos to Catholic Charities for standing their ground. Resist tyranny at every opportunity.
The case worker who investigated my wife and me was Lutheran, we’re not Lutheran either. I’m not familiar with Lutherans, they may be just fine with queers adopting children.
Catholic organizations are not and good for them, neither are Baptists, good for them also. Homosexuality is perverted and no child should be raised by perverts, no matter how much the perverts swear they “love children”.
This is starting to be a trend. Catholic Charities suspended adoption services for similar reasons in:
1. MA (2006) http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/11/catholic_charities_stuns_state_ends_adoptions/
Yes, Mitt Romney was governor at the time. No, he didn’t do anything about it.
3. Additionally, the charity locked horns with UK authorities over equality laws:
I know of a gay couple (men) who recently adopted a child, when I heard the news I stated that this is child abuse! Most people agree with me I’ll bet.
I posited no false premise in most post. Usually a question mark (?) means someone is seeking information.
I don’t know so was ASKING about what it meant for CC to receive no more state money.
CC does NOT train families for foster care? In our state, there are a myriad of private organizations who do this for the state. The state stopped doing it due to budget restrictions. Isn’t CC a non-profit organization?
I don’t understand how CC or the state of Illinois can continue to license foster care families through an organization who procures those families if the state cuts off the money. Will the state stop paying a f/c stipend to the families licensed through CC? I would think the state social workers would just stop placing children with CC families.
I think CC should fight this. Most Americans would be on their side.
Was it through the state?
Poor child is being intentionally denied the right to have a mother.
Sick.
I suppose it's your use of the word "train" that doesn't set right. There is no training period. They investigate, the social worker, whether he/she is Catholic, Lutheran, whoever is contracted to do it comes to your house, as I stated the one who came here was with Lutheran Social Services.
They count your beds and bed rooms, they even get a tape measure out and measure them. They check for smoke and C.O. detectors, the general upkeep of the physical premises and they ask a lot of questions, questions that you might not ordinarily want to answer but this is all voluntary on your part, the questions are just part of the procedure you volunteered for.
Questions about income and expenses, have your utility bills handy because they want to actually see them, plus your W-2s from the last year. They ask about any criminal convictions in you or your spouses past, might as well tell the truth on that because you also have to give them permission to run a Criminal Background Investigation on you.
I believe you and I may actually be on the same side of this issue, I do not want homosexuals raising children or adopting them. I applaud the Catholic church for not folding so they can get "Caeser's money".
I'm trying to point out that this can be done by Catholic Charities as it is done by others. The one I noted has been doing it successfully since 1918 without any tax payer money. The Catholics I know are every bit as generous as any other religious people. This issue is more important to moral people than any relatively minor religious differences among religions. I do not know the ins and outs of these various religious agencies and can't answer some of your questions but I do know that agencies that don't accept "government money" are not affected when government comes up with this immoral crap.
The Baptist agency I mentioned isn't affected yet but they are a charitable group and are tax exempt. Liberals are after those tax exempt organizations, the religion based ones anyway.
I have long advocated for my local church to voluntarily give up its tax exempt status but believe me, I'm a lone voice crying in the wilderness on that issue.
While I'm "preaching", I'll also say that the Catholic Charities I have long donated to uses my money for the purposes I intend. I do not donate to the Catholic church, I go in person to Catholic Social Services and put the check in the hand of the Sister in charge of taking care of these pregnant teen age girls and we talk, she's the easiest person in the world to talk to and is anxious to tell me all I want to know about how things are coming along.
Divorce. Remarriage. Adultery. Fornication. The Pill. Abortion.
These are the things so-called “normal” people have been indulging in for decades. The wreckage created by these people extends to the specter of homosexual marriage now upon us. No society is given over to that perversion unless they have first given up natural relations in violation of God’s designed order.
I don’t know how the adoption was done....I just know the young man who is now “daddy”...
AMEN, AMEN!
It’s as if Paul VI had a crystal ball when he wrote Humanae Vitae all those years ago. To think of the scorn and abuse heaped on that poor man for that one encyclical, it is amazing that he was proved right one thousand percent.
Shame on all those “Christians” who chide us “ignernt” Catholics who don’t practice birth control. If you knew how many times some self-absorbed “christian” ask me with a sneer “ are these all yours?”, or, “you’ve never heard of the pill?”.
Sick, our culture is sick.
The requirement to consider gay couples for adoption is a move by unscroupulous peoples to tie up adoptions so that genuine heterosexual couples cannot adopt children until the exotic peoples are considered. That should not be. The people who are not in male-female marriages cannot be considered. That is a rulc of God not man.
“If you knew how many times some self-absorbed “christian” ask me with a sneer “ are these all yours?”, or, “you’ve never heard of the pill?”.
“Be fruitful and multiply!” I’m single, but I always tell my married friends who have children “Keep having MORE!!!” They balk because they are doing the “we want to wait till...” blah blah blah. I am in no position to judge because I have not taken on the responsibility of ONE child. But there is just something fundamentally right about God’s command (if obeyed).
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