As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, marriage is between one man and one woman.You can create all the civil laws you want that say otherwise, but it doesn't matter. Church teaching trumps your law.
It becomes a bit annoying when you're talking about the foster program.
In Illinois, gay couples have the right to register their union and be treated as a married couple in the eyes of the law. In the eyes of the Church, they're as gay as ever and not married. And only married couples can foster a child through Catholic Charities.
In light of the new law, the State of Illinois told Catholic Charities that the contract for foster care services wasn't going to be renewed because Catholics don't recognize anything besides a church wedding.
Catholic Charities went to court, citing the religious freedom clause in the Bill of Rights.
A judge has decided that a full hearing is needed. The State can't make any changes to the existing situation until then.
Illinois says they can't continue to partner with Catholic Charities because the organization won't consider foster or adoption requests from unmarried or same sex couples, which violates the new law. Catholic Charities cites a much older law which protects their right to practice the Catholic faith, even if the tenets of that faith collide with civil law.
Since the 1920's, Catholic Charities has contracted with the State of Illinois to handle foster care, and they've done it under the Catholic ethos. A judge in Sangamon County has blocked the State's attempt to force compliance when doing so would violate the rights of Catholic Charities to be Catholic.
This isn't over with yet, and it won't end quietly.
In the end, a few thousand children will either find disruption or security in an ongoing program with case workers they know.
The dispute doesn't really seem to be about what's best for those children, does it?
No comments:
Post a Comment