In a combined statement released Nov. 14, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield, Bishop Edward K. Braxton of Belleville and Bishop R. Daniel Conlon of Joliet said that with "deep regret" they decided to relinquish appeals in the ongoing dispute.
In June, the Department of Children and Family Services announced it would not renew Catholic Charities contract to provide adoption and foster care services because the Catholic agencies would not comply with the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, which went into effect June 1.
The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a union, instituted by God, between one man and one woman and that sexual activity outside of marriage is contrary to God's law. The long-standing practice of Catholic Charities had been to place children with married couples or single, non-cohabiting persons only. Non-married cohabiting couples were referred to other agencies.
Catholic Charities of the Springfield, Joliet and Peoria dioceses filed the suit in Sangamon County Circuit Court June 7 to ask for a legal clarification as to whether the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act protected the freedom of faith-based agencies to provide foster care and adoption services in accord with their religious beliefs.
In late July, the Belleville diocese joined the suit; the Peoria Diocese withdrew from the suit on Oct. 6.
In their statement, Bishops Paprocki, Braxton and Conlon said, "The decision not to pursue further appeals was reached with great reluctance, but was necessitated by the fact that the State of Illinois has made it financially impossible for our agencies to continue to provide these services and the courts have refused to grant a stay for these operations to continue while further appeals are pending. Since we now need to close offices and lay off employees, further appeals would be moot.
"The Catholic Church has successfully partnered with the state for half a century in providing foster care and adoption services," the statement said. "While the state has forced the Catholic Church out of state-supported foster care and adoption services, the losers will be the children, foster care families and adoptive parents who will no longer have the option of Catholic, faith-based services.
"We are sad to lose the dedicated employees who have served our Catholic foster care and adoption services so faithfully for so many years. We are grateful to them and reluctantly bid them farewell with our prayers and best wishes," the combined statement concluded.
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield added, "Despite the loss of foster care and adoption services, our Catholic Charities in the Diocese Springfield in Illinois will continue to address the basic human needs of the poor in central Illinois in other ways. The silver lining of this decision is that our Catholic Charities going forward will be able to focus on being more Catholic and more charitable, while less dependent on government funding and less encumbered by intrusive state policies."
"The dismantling of Catholic Charities' foster care ministry marks a tragic end to 90 years of foster care service by some of the most effective child welfare agencies in Illinois," said Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society, which represented the Charities in their lawsuit against the State. "The Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act only passed after specific assurances that the law would not impact the work of religious social service agencies. Specific protections for these agencies were written into the law, but unfortunately, Illinois officials refused to abide by those protections. This stands as a stark lesson to the rest of the nation that legislators promising 'religious protection' in same sex marriage and civil union laws may not be able to deliver on those promises."
In a separate statement, Steven E. Roach, executive director of Catholic Charities for the Springfield diocese, said that Catholic Charities will work cooperatively with DCFS to "ensure that a transition plan will be put in place that minimizes the disruption to the lives of our foster parents and children" and that a "plan that accomplishes this objective" has already been presented to the state agency.
Roach also commended the Catholic Charities staff. "We are forever grateful for the dedication, professionalism and compassion that our foster care and adoption staff members have demonstrated over the years in the service of abused and neglected children." He said Catholic Charities would "work diligently" to secure employment opportunities for staff members with agencies designated to receive cases during the transition.
Roach said the cessation of adoption and foster care service will require a significant reorganization under the guidance of Bishop Paprocki and the Catholic Charities corporate board of directors.
"Our objectives will be to strengthen our Catholic identity, maintain our community presence across the diocese and become less reliant on government funding," he said. "In order to achieve this result, we will need to increase our efforts at enlisting the support of our parishioners, and all people of good will, to assist us in serving the needs of the poor and suffering. We will continue to proudly proclaim who we are and what we do and we will never be forced to abandon our God-given mandate to serve the 'least of our brothers and sisters.'"