The selfishness and bigotry is really rather astonishing, but then again it is the Catholic Church.
58 workers are laid off after the Catholic Diocese of Rockford chooses to end all adoption and foster care services through catholic charities. It's in response to the Illinois legislature's failure to enact an amendment to the Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Unions Act, that would allow them to refer gay and unmarried couples to other agencies.
Leslie Montoya worked for a year serving children under the Diocese until Thursday morning when she found out she was laid off.
"My first thought was we work so hard for the children to have stability in their lives to have permanency and this is another thing that is going to be removed from their lives. A worker they've been working with several months possibly a few years and that person's just going to disappear."
The AP adds: "Rockford and four other Catholic dioceses in Illinois are among 45 private agencies that provide state-funded adoption and foster-care services, DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe said. The dioceses provide services to about 2,300 of the 15,000 children in the foster-care system, while two other religious groups provide care to about 1,000 children, Marlowe said."
