PEORIA, IL (Catholic Online) - Illinois' recent change to marriage law allows same-sex civil unions, in turn allowing homosexual couples to adopt children. Any charitable organization that refuses to adopt to homosexual couples faces contract termination on the basis of discrimination. Catholic charity groups, refusing to compromise their standards on the basis of integrity, challenged the pending contract terminations in June, but have now been dealt a stinging blow.
 
Catholic groups sued, requesting that their religious freedom and conscience be protected and that their policies against allowing homosexuals to adopt be respected, but Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John Schmidt simply refused, explaining the state had the right to terminate the contracts if it so pleased.

Schmidt ruled, "No citizen has a legally recognized right to a contract with the government. The fact that the plaintiffs have contracted with the state to provide foster care and adoption services for over 40 years does not vest the plaintiffs with a protected property interest."

For decades, the Catholic charities in question have looked after child welfare and have assisted the state's Department of Children and Family Services which paid to support the charities' work. In return, the organizations have worked tirelessly to find adoptive and foster homes for children in need, but now that relationship is being forced to an end. 

Bishop Daniel Jenky, head of the Diocese of Peoria said, "Important elements of the political establishment in the state of Illinois are now basically at war with the Catholic community." 

The decision leaves many children in Illinois in a state of limbo until they can be placed with other child welfare agencies where they may be freely adopted by same-sex couples. It also ends decades of Catholic tradition serving the most vulnerable population in America--its needy children.

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