SPRINGFIELD — Catholic Charities directors from all five downstate Illinois dioceses gathered at the state capitol May 4 to call for quick legislative action to preserve vital adoption and foster care services for thousands of children and families around the state.

The directors indicated their agencies may soon be forced out of the adoption and foster care services if legislation allowing religious organizations to continue to use their discretion in serving would-be adoptive or foster care families is not passed.

The legislation, known as Senate Bill 1123, is an amendment to the state’s new Civil Union Act. It seeks to clarify legislatively the act’s stated intent that “Nothing in this act shall interfere with or regulate the religious practice of any religious body.”

However, the amendment failed to make it out of a Senate Executive Committee on April 13. State Catholic leaders said opponents have wrongfully criticized it as being “anti-gay.”

Catholic Charities accepts adoption and foster care applications from legally married couples and non-cohabiting single individuals. If a request is received from an individual in a cohabiting relationship (regardless of sexual orientation) out of respect for church teaching, the agency refers them to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, or to another licensed child welfare agency in the community.

“We are committed to providing quality child welfare services for the many children and families referred to us, and we’re proud to be a part of the strong public/private partnership that makes up the child welfare system in Illinois,” said Tricia Fox, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Peoria.

“But without the protections provided in Senate Bill 1123,” she continued, “the state may not be able to contract with us, and we will be forced to leave behind these services to amazing kids and wonderful families and that is just unthinkable.”

Steve Roach, director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Springfield, put it bluntly.

“If Catholic Charities is forced out of child care and adoptions, it would be a catastrophic mistake,” he said.

Other Catholic Charities directors present included Gary Huelsmann (Belleville), Glen Van Cura (Joliet) and Frank Vonch (Rockford). Also speaking was Bob Gilligan, director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops.

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Catholic Charities has provided foster care and adoption needs in Illinois since 1921, and is responsible for approximately one-fifth of the cases in Illinois, Gilligan said.

But unless more explicit language reflecting the legislative intent of the Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Union Act is enacted, faith-based agencies will be at risk of impending legal action that aims to close their doors, he said.

Gilligan encourages concerned citizens to write or call their state senator and state representative, urging them to push for a clarification of the act’s language to assure that faith-based agencies are allowed to maintain their religious identity and continue to provide foster care and adoption services.

“Catholic Charities is a longtime partner with the state. Everything we do is in the best interests of the child,” said Huelsmann, noting the Belleville diocese includes some of the poorest counties in Illinois. “We have a lot of vulnerable children.” Catholic Charities has a “high performance record” helping children and families, he added, and “the possibility of being forced out of this business is not in the best interest of children.”

Fox said Catholic leaders will continue to advocate strongly to ensure casework services to children and families is not disrupted.

“We can avoid all this pain if lawmakers will uphold the commitment they made last fall and protect the rights of religious organizations like Catholic Charities to perform these services,” she said.

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Contributing to this story was Cathy Locher of Catholic Times, the newspaper of the Diocese of Springfield.