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State Being Sued Over Adoptions
(IRN)-Catholic Charities of Illinois is suing the state in an attempt to maintain what the agency calls religious freedom.

At issue is Illinois' new civil unions law, which grants domestic partnerships with many of the same benefits of marriage to both gay and straight couples. The attorney general says Catholic Charities, as a taxpayer funded entity, must abide by the state's definition of a legally recognized couple.

Not so says Peter Breen, attorney with the Thomas More Society who's representing Catholic Charities.

Breen says the agency provides adoption and foster care services to married couples. Civil unions, he says, don't count as marriage.

"Catholic Charities does not make child placements with unmarried couples, same sex or opposite sex," he says.

Breen says the agency operates under Catholic teachings, which state marriage is defined as between one man and one woman.

"That is what Catholic Charities has held to and done its charitable work based on," says Breen. "So whether there's a civil union law, or any other type of domestic partnership law, Catholic Charities practice shouldn't have to change because of that."

Catholic Charities has stopped providing services to prospective adoptive or foster families until the matter is resolved.

(Source: Illinois Radio Network)
06 08 11 by Newsroom
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