Today is the start of Religious Freedom Week!
Today we pray that children waiting to be placed in a loving home and the caregivers who serve those children will find strength and support from the Church.
Reflect
The command to care for the orphan appears throughout the Scriptures. Over the centuries, the Church responded to this call by building adoption and foster care institutions. The need for these institutions is as great as ever today, but they are being targeted for closures because of their religion. In places like Illinois, Massachusetts, California, and the District of Columbia, service providers with a proven record of excellence in recruiting and assisting foster families have already been forced to shut down because they do not place children with same-sex couples. In Michigan, sexual orientation/gender identity (SOGI) activists went out of their way to challenge Catholic Charities, while Philadelphia Catholic Social Services has taken their struggle to continue to foster children to the Supreme Court. Intolerance for religious organizations has real consequences, and in this case, it is both vulnerable children and adults who want to work with faith-affirming agencies who suffer. Let us pray that our civic leaders will give the Church the space to continue to serve.
Act
The Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act 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! To respond, click on the link!
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