Ever since Illinois legalized civil unions, state-funded Catholic Charities have had to face the prospect of allowing partners in a civil union to adopt kids. In the past, they restricted adoptions to straight married couples and single parents. When the civil unions bill passed, they had a decision to make: comply with the law or shut down.
Most of them chose to shut down. (In one case, a secular organization stepped in to help the children abandoned by the Catholic groups.)
They filed a lawsuit against the state because they wrongly thought their rights were being violated.
Yesterday, thankfully, they dropped the lawsuit.
Putting an end to legal efforts to keep Catholic Charities in the foster care business, the Roman Catholic dioceses of Joliet, Springfield and Belleville have dropped a lawsuit against the state of Illinois, agreeing to transfer thousands of foster care children and staff to other agencies.
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… Peter Breen, an attorney for Catholic Charities, said the state had delayed payments for foster care services, which delayed payments to foster care parents working for the social service agency.
“The action of the state forced the end of this case,” Breen said. “Time was our enemy in this unfortunately.”
Time… and the bigotry of the Church itself. If Catholic Charities were more interested in helping place children in good, safe homes rather than focusing on what people do inside their bedrooms, then they would still be receiving state funding now.
At least with them out of the picture, these children will have more prospective parents available to adopt them and that benefits everybody.
