The U.S. Bishops are lending their support to a new law that will reverse legislation prohibiting the federal funding of any adoption agency that opposes adoption by same-sex parents.

In a July 31 press release, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced that their subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage is supporting the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act of 2014 which was introduced last week by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) in the House of Representatives, and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) in the U.S. Senate.

“The Act would prohibit federal and state officials in the administration of federally funded child welfare services from excluding child welfare providers simply because of the providers’ religious beliefs or moral convictions,” explained committee chairman Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco.

According to a USCCB fact sheet on the new law, the Inclusion Act is needed because child welfare service providers are being subjected to discrimination because of their sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions.

"For example, certain religiously-affiliated charities in Massachusetts, Illinois, California, and the District of Columbia have had to stop serving adults and children through the provision of adoption and foster care services because of requirements imposed upon them to place children in households headed by two persons of the same sex. These requirements are contrary to their sincerely held religious belief and moral conviction that children ought to be placed in homes headed by a married couple – one man and one woman. In Illinois alone, more than 3,000 children in foster care (more than 20% of the state’s total) were displaced from religiously-affiliated organizations."

“The Inclusion Act would remedy this unjust discrimination by enabling all providers to serve the needs of parents and children in a manner consistent with the providers’ religious beliefs and moral convictions,” the Archbishop said.

“Indeed, women and men who want to place their children for adoption ought to be able to choose from a diversity of adoption agencies, including those that share the parents’ religious beliefs and moral convictions.”

Representative Mike Kelly said the new bill is about fairness and inclusion. "It is about ensuring that everyone who wants to help provide foster or adoptive care to children is able to have a seat at the table. Faith-based organizations have historically played a downright heroic role in caring for our nation’s most vulnerable and needy kids. In so many ways their work is unparalleled. There is no good reason why any of these care providers should be disqualified from working with their government to serve America’s families simply because of their deeply-rooted religious beliefs.”

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