Legislative updateSB 1112 failed to make it out of the Illinois Senate committee last week. Unless more explicit language reflecting the legislative intent of the Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Union Act is enacted, faith-based agencies will be at risk of impending legal action that aims to close their doors, said Robert Gilligan, director of the Catholic Conference in Illinois. He encourages concerned citizens to write or call their state senator and state representative, urging them to push for a clarification of the act's language to assure that faith-based agencies are allowed to maintain their religious identity and continue to provide foster care and adoption services. |
In light of the state’s new Civil Union Act, religious-based social service agencies are concerned how it will impact their work, said Bob Gilligan, director of the Catholic Conference in Illinois (CCI), the public policy arm of the state’s bishops.
Catholic Charities has provided foster care and adoption needs in Illinois since 1921, and is responsible for approximately one-fifth of the cases in Illinois, Gilligan said. Senate Bill 1123 would have allowed religious organizations to continue to use their discretion in how to serve would-be adoptive or foster care families.
Catholic Charities accepts adoption and foster care applications from legally married couples and non-cohabiting single individuals. If a request is received from an individual in a cohabiting relationship (regardless of sexual orientation) out of respect for church teaching, the agency refers them to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, or to another licensed child welfare agency in the community.
The Peoria diocese, which spreads across the north central section of Illinois from Iowa to Indiana, provides numerous services to young and old. “There are very few resources for children available in rural areas of the state,” said Fox, executive director of the Peoria Catholic Charities. “We are always looking for ways to improve our services.”
“Catholic Charities is a longtime partner with the state. Everything we do is in the best interests of the child,” said Huelsmann, who said the Belleville diocese includes some of the poorest counties in Illinois. “We have a lot of vulnerable children. Catholic Charities has a high performance record helping children and families. ... The possibility of being forced out of this business is not in the best interest of children.”
Roach described the many areas Catholic Charities in the Springfield diocese provides services — including Meals on Wheels in Decatur, food pantries, clothing stores, and help with prescription drugs.
“If Catholic Charities is forced out of child care and adoptions, it would be a catastrophic mistake,” Roach said. “An estimated 400 jobs would be lost.”