Illinois' Catholic Charities Dispute Over Foster Care, Adoption, Same-Sex Parents At Standstill

Though the state of Illinois's Department of Children and Family Services announced last week that it had suspended its foster care and adoption contracts with Catholic Charities over the agency's refusal to license couples in civil unions or unmarried partners as adoptive or foster parents, that decision has been temporarily overruled as a Sangamon County judge this week said the state must continue to send foster children the agencies' way.

The heated battle, which first blew up when Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions law in January, is now at a stalemate as both sides await an August 17 hearing deciding whether Catholic Charities will be granted a permanent injunction against the DCFS's July 1 decision, as AP reported.

Catholic Charities, represented in the lawsuit by the Thomas More Society, hope they will be allowed to continue directing same-sex-partnered and unmarried applicants elsewhere -- despite the fact that they receive state funding. They've described DCFS's cutting ties with Catholic Charities as "reckless" and have vowed to press on.

"We will continue this fight until all young people in need now and in the future are guaranteed their right to receive the high-quality foster and adoption care that the Catholic Church has provided for over a century to Illinois children," Thomas More attorney Peter Breen said of the case in a statement.

Meanwhile, DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe told HuffPost Chicago this week that the department is complying with the judge's order, "which includes continuing to refer children to these agencies," and that they were proceeding with "business as usual" while next month's hearing approaches. Marlowe saw the judge's order as simply a clarification that put into writing what he had already verbally stated when he issued a temporary injunction earlier in the month.

"I'm not going to presume to know what this judge is going to decide," Marlowe said, "but whatever is said may not be the final word on the matter anyway. In the mean time, we'll continue to comply with the court order and keep serving kids and families and see where we go from there."

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office, too, told HuffPost Chicago they were in agreement with the judge's order regarding the continuation of referrals "until the judge could rule on the merits of Catholic Charities’ claims" next month.

LGBT rights advocates expressed some frustration, though not surprise, with Catholic Charities' attempt to circumvent DCFS's decision.

Anthony Martinez, executive director of The Civil Rights Agenda, said his organization remains optimistic while looking to next month's hearing. They "hope and, really, sort of expect this judge to hear both sides of the issue and understand that the public accommodation and human rights law of Illinois trumps this specific case."

Bernard Cherkasov, Equality Illinois' chief executive officer, hoped that, despite the needs of those most directly impacted in the matter -- the estimated 2,000 children who are wards of the state currently under Catholic Charities' care -- are not overlooked.

"What they need is a loving, caring, safe home. What they don't need are biased child welfare agencies saying that they take state money to take care of them but are also doing everything they can to limit the pool of parents who could adopt them," Cherkasov told HuffPost Chicago.

"We need to continue focusing on what is best of those children that are in the care of the state," Cherkasov continued, "and to allow the opponents of LGBT equality to use these laws to carve out new exceptions for themselves that give in to their homophobia has nothing to do with the welfare of these children."

Earlier this month, Governor Quinn, too, had strong words for Catholic Charities, saying that the agency "made a choice" to ignore state non-discrimination laws and that the state is "not going back" to entering into contracts with the agencies should they continue to discriminate in their placements.

"If an organization... decides they don't want to voluntarily participate with the state, they have that choice and we honor that choice." Quinn said, according to the Capitol Fax blog. "We have other entities that are involved in foster care that are willing to assume that duty."

After the Catholic Charities agency in Rockford, Ill., announced they would no longer contract with the state to license foster care and adoptive parents, another agency -- the Youth Services Bureau of Illinois Valley -- took over their 300 cases. Should the judge uphold DCFS's decision, Marlowe said his agency already has longstanding procedures in place to transition the agency's remaining cases.

Comments

[SteveDenver]

11:42 PM on 08/29/2011

The Catholic Machine shouldn't be allowed anywhere near children.

[MarkInEugene]

06:41 PM on 08/18/2011

The Church is so used to having it's way with tax dollars, it has lost sight of fact that the money it uses to operate comes out of the pockets of singles and gay couples. And for them to take the money of these taxpayers and then deny them the chance to adopt is blatantly prejudicial on their part.

It's a transition that has to be made; eliminating religious entities that ignore that a good part of their funding comes from people they freely discriminate against. Nobody is stopping them from discriminating, but how can they expect to be funded by the very people they discriminate against?

[Koeiseun]

11:39 PM on 07/25/2011

It's really quite simply...play by the rules or don't expect any federal/state funding....

[mcsllrs]

09:58 AM on 07/23/2011

several yers ago my sister tried to adopt. Though she is in a loving relationship with her husband CC turned then down. They have a nice house, both have great jobs, my Mom who lives with them and was then in her early 60's was going to baby sit. So you ask, why turned down??? they do not go to or intended to go to church

[Alec Radecki]

03:30 AM on 07/23/2011

These poor kids may have to live with a lower quality of life and upbringing just because these people want to disenfranchise others. If they cared about the children at all, this would be a non-issue.

[LeftRight]

10:21 AM on 07/25/2011

Exactly!

[Brittany Lock]

03:07 AM on 07/22/2011

Catholic Charities obviously don't care about those kids. Having two loving mothers or two loving fathers (or an unmarried couple) is better than nothing at all. Shame on them for putting their misguided values above the livelihoods of children.

[eve mahar]

05:09 PM on 07/22/2011

All major scientific studies have shown that children raised by same sex parents do just as well in every way as children raised by straight parents. So really, its not just better than nothing at all, it's just as good for them. And really a foster child, just needs a loving home, whether that is a single parent, straight, gay, whatever, as long as they are good loving people willing to give a child a chance, that is all that should matter.

[Alec Radecki]

03:25 AM on 07/23/2011

A study done last year actually showed that children with two mothers were verrrry slightly better off.

[NikitaAhn]

12:36 AM on 07/22/2011

Catholic Charities should be ashamed of themselves, putting their political agenda before the wellbeing of foster kids. How dare they exclude loving, safe homes for kids because they don't agree with the gender of the parents? As someone who has spent years working with foster kids, and who has seen firsthand the desperation, loneliness, fear, and grief they experience living in the system, I cannot FATHOM actively working to LIMIT the number of homes available to them. Especially since LGTBQ parents foster and adopt frequently. There are about 65,000 kids being fostered by gay parents. Would these people honestly prefer that those thousands of kids still be living in group homes? And that's not even taking into consideration the fact that CC is refusing to foster with single parents or unmarried couples. They're seriously limiting their pool of foster and adoptive homes, and denying kids families in the process. They DO realize that there aren't enough good homes for these kids as it is, right? I GUARANTEE that those foster kids would HAPPILY take a single parent, an unmarried couple, or a gay couple over aging out of the system without EVER having the support, love, and stability of a family.

I hope the judge allows the state to stop giving tax-payer money to an organization that puts its own needs ahead of those of the kids it's SUPPOSED to be serving. Give that money to organizations that don't use theology as a disguise for hatred and selfishness.

[Mel61]

02:45 AM on 07/22/2011

Ditto. God bless any person or couple, married or not, straight or any one of the LGTB orientations who want to take in foster children. Love, compassion, empathy, attention, time, new positive experiences, encouragement, support, etc., etc. can come from any person/couple who chooses to share such things with a child. Unconditional love is not limited by the things the CC seems to think it is.

[NikitaAhn]

03:23 AM on 07/22/2011

Well said. It just kills me, that they're turning away good homes for kids. I don't understand how anyone can justify keeping a kid in foster care to satisfy their own need to pass judgment on what constitutes a family. It's HEARTBREAKING to see these kids struggling through life without the basic supports most people have. You watch them go through birthdays and Christmas without families, parent-teacher nights at school with a different group home staff every time. They live in constant uncertainty, never knowing when they'll be moved and lose whatever small attachments they've managed to make. They feel ashamed and hurt and lost and many of them wonder what's wrong with them. When they're sick or scared or sad, they don't have that safety and reassurance of a parent to turn to. They dream about having a family every day of their lives, and these people at CC are KNOWINGLY denying them that chance for nothing more than misplaced moral superiority and_ignorance. It's like withholding food from a starving person because you don't like how the food is seasoned. What an incredibly UN-Christ-like thing to do.

[cavekarst]

10:45 PM on 07/21/2011

Mother Church has the resources to do Catholic things.
I just don't believe Catholics want to end State Funding.
Seperation of Church and State isn't just something our
Islamic Community needs to know. Tell it to the Vatican.

[LeftRight]

12:52 PM on 07/25/2011

Not just the Vatican.... MOST "Christian" churches get lots of money from the government and then use it to violate state and federal antidiscrimination laws....

[Kimberly Phillips]

07:11 PM on 07/21/2011

There are plenty of non-profit organizations that will take over that government contract. Good for the Governor for not being bullied by Catholic Charities.

[DevonTexas]

04:00 PM on 07/21/2011

"...hope they will be allowed to continue directing same-sex-partnered and unmarried applicants elsewhere -- despite the fact that they receive state funding. "

If being discriminatory is that important to CCharities, then just give up the state money.

[American in Taipei]

08:29 AM on 07/22/2011

No, you see, they need state money so they can spend their tithe money shuffling around misbehaving priests. Priorities!

[Bill J4321]

03:41 PM on 07/21/2011

Well, thus far, what do we know about the 'catholic church?'

We know they view dogma more importantly than they view the lives of children.

Moral people were able to surmise that while the 'catholic church' was raping children and covering up those rapes.

[wiseone816]

10:20 PM on 07/21/2011

There is nothing moral about same sex marrige if God had meant for man to marry man he would not have made woman, if same sex people want children then they need to marry the oppisite sex.

[valkygrrl]

12:09 AM on 07/22/2011

The law says otherwise and in this country we aren't forced to follow the dictates of your religion.

[Brittany Lock]

03:11 AM on 07/22/2011

There is nothing moral about being a bigot. God does not exist, and therefore, what was said about man marrying man or woman marrying woman in the bible is completely irrelevant. If same sex couples want children, they should be allowed to have those children- who are unwanted by the opposite sex couples who created them.

[TeraWatt60]

03:16 PM on 07/21/2011

Too Bad for CC either follow the law or stop accepting state (secular) funds ...but they probably need the money because of all the "wonderful" work  priests had been doing and the Church is now paying settlements for...

[Edward Wilkes]

02:19 PM on 07/21/2011

As long as nobody really cares what goes on in same sex relationships the same sex's need to stop creating so much damned trouble. Enough is Enough already. Is that all they do is find things to fight about. My God!!

[bmcombs]

02:44 PM on 07/21/2011

Huh? Catholic Charities is not abiding by the law. Seems fairly simple to me.

Catholic Charities said that if Civil Unions passed they would likely end services. Then, when it passes and the states calls their bluff - CC changes its tune that it wants to discriminate and break the law. They can't have it both ways. Follow the law or stop taking state money.

You know those "same sex's" always causing trouble - demanding equal rights and fair treatment under the law. Please change your [same sex's] to Black, Irish or any other minority group and you'll see how foolish you sound.

[TeraWatt60]

03:13 PM on 07/21/2011

well said. Amazing that if it were a Fundie Protestant bunch that was refusing to send kids to "Papist" homes these same bi.gots would be whining a different tune

[NikitaAhn]

12:27 AM on 07/22/2011

What's MOST important here is that Catholic Charities is limiting the number of homes for kids in state custody to fulfill their own prejudices. They're putting their political agenda before the welfare of foster kids - THAT'S causing "trouble." Amazing that you blame the people being discriminated against for the discrimination.

[NikitaAhn]

12:38 AM on 07/22/2011

Also, if you read the article you'll see that it's not JUST same sex couples being denied the opportunity to foster and adopt - it's single people and unmarried straight couples as well. But you just want to latch onto the gay portion of the issue and start slinging blame, huh?