CATHOLICS CHARITIES DIOCESE vs CIVIL UNIONS IN ILLINOIS

The Rockford, IL Dioceses notified the Dept. of Children and Family Services that they would not be involved in licensing families for foster care and adoption over the state's civil unions. The Civil Unions law became effective on 6/1/11. Many couples were at the clerk's Office getting the certifications. They had to wait 24 hours before they could be joined as a couple.

The reason for the dissolving of the Foster Care was that it was not the policy of Catholic Charities to place children with unmarried cohabiting couples, whether straight or gay. The Catholic Charities want the language added to the law that would allow Catholic Charities to refer couples to another one of the 45 adoption agencies in Illinois. Otherwise they face litigation for refusing adoptions of foster care due to their moral code.

Rockford, IL has 350 children in Foster Care under the Catholic Charities, Joliet , and Peoria would be affected with 963 Foster Children. The Rockford, IL Catholic Diocese would be losing over 7 million dollars and over 50 employees.

Governor Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan had previously done an investigation into the practice of the Catholic Charities for excluding prospective adoptive gay parents. If the agencies accept the state's money they can't discriminate against gay couples. It is prohibited by law to discriminate to couples based on their sexual orientation.

There appeared in the Rockford Register Star - Editorial, an article from the ACLU's Director Benjamin Wolf that the Catholic Charities are misleading and disingenous. They have aleady refused to place children with couples who are lesbians and gays, and they are continuing to exclude them as adoptive parents.

The Catholic Charities have announced that they will have litigation over the matter of the state permitting Civil Unions. No word has come forth as to what the parents think about their children being raised by lesbians or gay couples. That could be another fight for the DCFS of Illinois.

The question comes about as to how did Illinois pass the bill of civil unions? Rep. Greg Harris proposed the bill HB2234 on 2/18/09, however it was voted out of the committee. Rep. Greg Harris admitted that he is openly gay. The bill was advanced to the 3rd and final reading on 3/19/09 and converted to Senate Bill 1716, by the Illinois General Assembly on 11/30/10. It passed the Senate on 12/1/10 and Gov. Quinn pledged to sign the law. The Civil Union Legislation became effective 6/1/11.

Organizations that endorsed the Bill were:

ACLU

Chicago Bar Association

Citizen Action Committee of Illinois

Chicago Teachers Union

Illinois State Bar

A Total of 21 groups supported the Bill 1716

Bill 1716 Criminal Law Section 25:

Prohibited civil unions, The following civil unions are prohibited:

(1) a civil union entered into prior to both parties attaining 18 years of age;

(2) a civil union entered into prior to the dissolution of a marriage or civil union or substantially similar legal relationship of one of the parties;

(3) a civil union between an ancestor and a descendant or between siblings whether the relationships is by the half or the whole blood or by adoption.

(5) a civil union between first cousins.

The rest of the bill is seven pages long and most of the other parts state who is to conduct the civil unions.

SUMMARY

The State of Illinois has over 15,000 Foster Children, which is a large number that the State of Illinois serves. They also employ a lot of people to manage the program. The debate will most likely end up in court in the future. The Catholic Charities have filed a lawsuit in the courts.  They are saying the State of Illinois has taken their rights. The case is pending.

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