State of Illinois severs foster-care ties with Catholic Charities

Who else will the State of Illinois look to shut down?

The state of Illinois has declined to renew its foster care and adoption contracts with Catholic Charities across Illinois, possibly ending a historic public and private partnership initiated by the Roman Catholic Church a half century ago and potentially severing the relationship between 2,500 foster children and their caseworkers.

Lawyers for three of the Catholic Charities agencies will seek an injunction from a Sangamon County judge on Tuesday.

In a letter sent last week to Catholic Charities in the dioceses of Peoria, Joliet, Springfield and Belleville, the Department of Children and Family Services told all four agencies that the state could not accept its signed contracts for the 2012 fiscal year because “your agency has made it clear that it does not intend to comply with the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act.”

“That law applies to foster care and adoption services,” each letter stated. “Thus, there is no meeting of the minds as to the [Fiscal Year 2012] Foster Care and Adoption Contracts.”

Last month, Catholic Charities in the dioceses of Springfield, Peoria and Joliet sued the Illinois attorney general and DCFS for threatening to enforce new policies that accommodate civil unions. The three agencies asked the court to declare that they are legally justified to preserve their current policy of exclusively granting licenses to married couples and single, non-cohabiting individuals and referring couples in civil unions to other child welfare agencies.

the rest at Chicago Trib

La Crosse Diocese celebrates long standing local marriages

La Crosse, Wisconsin (WXOW)-The Diocese of La Crosse sponsored an event today, designed for couples married 50 years or more.

Those couples, some of whom have been married even longer, renewed their marriage vows today.

The Diocese provided a number of locations including Plover, Altoona, La Crosse or Wausau.

More than 700 couples renewed their vows today including 63 in the city of La Crosse.

"Anyone who's been married will say, 'Wow that's a lot of work, and a lot of commitment' and so certainly their children want to celebrate this as well as the couples themselves who as the Bishop shared today in his sermon just the whole idea of God's in the middle and that's what's kept these marriages so strong."

Altogether, today's couples celebrated more than 36,000 years of marriage.

Video at WXOW