Five years ago Illinois embarked on a plan that disqualified legitimate faith-based organizations from Foster Care. Rather than continuing to receive State tax money, then-Bishop Thomas G. Doran withdrew Catholic Charities rather than sell out natural and Church law.
The diocese was attacked and vilified as homophobic, intolerant, and out-of-date (some of the milder epithets) as it was forced to discontinue services that it had provided for decades. As the public controversy subsided, and no children or foster parents fell through the cracks, people moved on from that as the topic of the day. Few remember those events as matters of principle and also concluded that leaving foster care meant discontinuing adoptions.
The Observer and secular papers dutifully reprint the United States Constitution’s First Amendment (below) with an understandable concentration — it’s their business, after all — on protecting freedom of the press. But it’s good to occasionally reflect on the freedom of religion also contained in that amendment. And it’s important to remember the significant difference between the exercise of freedom of religion and the right to worship.
Unlike constitutions in historical dictatorships, for example, the former Soviet Union and its satellites, North Korea, People’s Republic of China, our Constitution guarantees and protects the freedom of religion. A system of moral beliefs that inspire and guide individual and group behavior has far more influence than merely a right to privately express a belief or invoke a deity.
Freedom of religion is much broader than merely the right to worship. Neither should be individually abridged, but they should not be equated.
Faith-based organizations embrace religious beliefs to guide actions undertaken with free will, not as a ritualized protocol or as part of a state grant application. Catholic Charities answers the call to a Year of Mercy and its mission statement by acting freely to serve with love and not pity.
By embracing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy for the sake of the intended beneficiary, rather than because it “makes me feel good,” or because the state is paying for it, we follow the second great commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves, irrespective of who those neighbors are or where they come from.
Reinforcing families and life can be found in all of the priorities of the Church and its charitable organizations and Catholic Charities remains as devoted to children as it was before leaving the foster care world. We have never left the adoptions arena, and do not plan to, even as political pressures occur and laws change. We observe that societal benefits coming from “natural” families also abound in those who build their families by choosing new members to love.
Catholic Charities has historically devoted time, effort, professionalism and prayer to the enhancement of families and even though tax dollars have disappeared, our commitments remain. Thus, helping families adopt new members is a special type of family planning that we support and facilitate.
Next month: Adoptions in a Changing World