The Diocese of Belleville announced July 26 that it will join three
other Illinois dioceses in a lawsuit against the state, after its
adoption and foster care programs face being shutdown over a recent
civil unions law.
Gary Huelsmann, director of Catholic Social
Services affiliated with the Belleville diocese, said on Tuesday that
halting these programs goes against “the best interest of the many
children we serve and will deny vital choices for foster parents and
children.”
The Belleville diocese joins Catholic Charities groups
from the dioceses of Springfield, Peoria, and Joliet in fighting the
attempts of the Illinois Attorney General's Office and the Illinois
Department of Children and Family Services to stop the charities' foster
care and adoption programs.
Catholic Charities' dispute with the
state centers on the recently-enacted Religious Freedom Protection and
Civil Unions Act, which gave legal status to same-sex partnerships or
unmarried opposite-sex couples.
The four dioceses maintain that
their Catholic Charities offices remain free, under that law, to place
foster children only with married couples and single individuals without
live-in partners.
In June 2011, Catholic Charities sued the state of
Illinois, seeking to confirm its status as a foster care agency under
the new legislation.
Illinois' Department of Children and Family
Services had stated in a July 8 letter that it was ending its
relationship with Catholic Charities in the dioceses over the Church
ministries' alleged refusal to comply with the civil union law.
On
July 12, Judge John Schmidt issued a preliminary injunction extending
the foster care contract between Illinois and Catholic Charities, which
the state refused to renew after it expired in June.
The injunction
ordered that business between the state and Catholic Charities should
proceed as it did prior to the contract's expiration.
However,
both the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press soon after reported
that the state would be stopping referrals, despite the Judge Schmidt's
contract extension.
Shortly before a July 18 hearing that would
have tested the legality of the state's move, Illinois Attorney General
Lisa Madigan reversed course and agreed not to go forward with the plan
to discontinue referrals to Catholic Charities, while continuing to pay
the organization under its existing contract.
Catholic Charities
will continue to provide foster care and adoption services until a
hearing scheduled for August 17, which will decide the merits of the
diocesan charities' complaint against the state.
In recent years,
the Catholic Charities of Illinois have been ranked at or near the top
when measured against the performance other comparable state agencies.
The
four dioceses' adoption and foster care programs have over 2,000
children in placement with foster families as well as 1,933 families
under their supervision.