Religious Freedom Week 2020: For the Good of All

Adoption and Foster Care

Pray
That children waiting to be placed in a loving home and the caregivers who selflessly serve those children will find strength and support from the Church.

Reflect
Caring for ‘the orphan’ is a demand of the gospel. Over the centuries, the Church has put this work of charity into practice by building adoption and foster care institutions. Today, the opioid crisis has put a strain on the foster care system. Yet while more children are waiting to be placed in families, faith-based child welfare providers are being targeted for closures because of their religious convictions. In places like Illinois, Massachusetts, California, and D.C., the service providers who have a track record of excellence in recruiting and assisting foster families have already been shut down. In Michigan, sexual orientation/gender identity (SOGI) activists have gone out of their way to challenge Catholic Charities, and Philadelphia Catholic Social Services is taking the struggle to continue to foster children to the Supreme Court. Worse still, in recent years, states that have worked to protect faith-based adoption and foster care have found themselves targeted by powerful corporations looking to appeal to SOGI activists. Intolerance for religious views has real consequences, and in this case, it is vulnerable children who have suffered. Let’s pray and act to keep kids first.

Act
The Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act (CWPIA) prevents faith-based child welfare service providers from being targeted by government discrimination. The Act would prohibit the federal government and any state that receives certain federal funding from discriminating against child welfare service providers on the basis that they decline to provide a child welfare service that conflicts with their sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions. Contact your U.S. Senators and Representative today and ask them to co-sponsor and support the federal Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act!.