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ACLU’s ‘petty lawsuit’ won’t help foster children, families tell court

March 8, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Detroit, Mich., Mar 8, 2018 / 05:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A lawsuit threatening a Catholic adoption service is political maneuvering that will do nothing to help children in need of loving homes, families and supporters told a federal court in Michigan during oral arguments this week.

In their latest dispute against a religious entity, Dumont v. Lyon, the ACLU sued in September in order to prevent Michigan from working with faith-based adoption agencies that hold traditional views about marriage, including St. Vincent Catholic Charities.

A 2015 law, which was passed with the backing of the Michigan Catholic Conference, prevents state-funded adoption and foster agencies from being forced to place children in violation of their beliefs. The law protects them from civil action and from threats to their public funding. When the law was passed, about 25 percent of Michigan’s adoption and foster agencies were faith-based.

Shamber Flore, a young woman who was adopted through the foster care program at St. Vincent’s, said that children in foster care need more access to families with loving homes, and that the ACLU’s lawsuit endangers that access.

“I grew up exposed to prostitution, poverty and drugs, but thankfully and fortunately my story didn’t end there,” Flore said in a statement. “I have had the privilege of having my story rewritten and I know this wouldn’t have been possible without the help and aid of St. Vincent.”

The government cannot find foster homes for every child in need, Flore added, and therefore must rely on private agencies like St. Vincent’s to fill in the gaps.

“I am both hurt and confused as to why the ACLU would want to shut down an organization like St. Vincent that only brings good to the greater community,” she said.

“(Foster children) deserve more people, more agencies, more open hearts to fill the shortage of families willing to care for kids like myself. If the ACLU has its way, there will be less helping hands, less homes and ultimately less hope for foster kids, and we can’t let the ACLU take that away.”

The ACLU’s new lawsuit will do nothing to actually help the increasing number of foster children in need of safe and loving homes, said Melissa Buck, a mother who adopted five special needs children with St. Vincent’s.

“This is a petty, needless lawsuit that prioritizes scoring cheap political points at the expense of children,” Buck said in a statement.

“St. Vincent didn’t just save the lives of our children, they’ve accompanied us in the joy of giving them new ones,” Buck noted.

“This is important work. It is also very difficult work. If the ACLU wins their lawsuit, all of this will be taken away…and it would hurt many other families just like mine,” she said.

According to data compiled by Child Trends, more than 600 foster children age out of the foster care system each year in Michigan without ever having been adopted. Studies show that children who age out of foster care without a family are less likely to graduate high school, attend college, or find employment than those who are adopted.

Despite the shortage of available foster families, St. Vincent Catholic Charities found more new foster families than almost 90 percent of other agencies within its service district, according to Becket, the law firm representing the agency.

“St. Vincent particularly excels at finding homes for hard to place children like kids with special needs, larger sibling groups, or older children,” Stephanie Barclay, legal counsel with Becket, said in a statement.

“Despite this heroic and important work, the ACLU sued the state of Michigan to forbid the state from relying on adoption agencies like St. Vincent solely because of its religious beliefs about marriage. But St. Vincent’s beliefs have never prevented a child from being placed in a home,” Barclay said.

This case is not the first time that Catholic Charities has come under fire for reserving adoptions to a mother and a father. In 2006, Catholic Charities of Boston was forced to shut down its adoption services because of a state law barring “sexual orientation discrimination.”

The same year, Catholic Charities of San Francisco was forced to close for similar reasons.

In 2010, after a law redefining marriage, the Washington, D.C. branch of Catholic Charities was forced to close its foster care and adoption services for holding the belief that children should be placed with a married mother and father.

In 2011, Catholic Charities affiliates in Illinois were forced to close after a new requirement stipulated that state money could only go to adoption services that offered those services to same-sex couples.

In the past, gay couples working with other agencies have been able to adopt foster children that were in the care of St. Vincent’s in Michigan, and the ACLU’s clients in Dumont v. Lyon could have done the same, Barclay noted. The clients also live closer to four different adoption agencies other than St. Vincent’s.

“Instead…the ACLU has gone out of its way to target St. Vincent and to try to shut down their programs,” Barclay said.

“Based on today’s hearing, we’re hopeful that the court will listen to the stories of the foster families and children before it who will bear the brunt of the ACLU’s petty lawsuit.”

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Who killed Fr. Kunz? Wisc. police launch campaign to revive cold case

March 7, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Madison, Wis., Mar 7, 2018 / 03:22 pm (CNA).- Fr. Alfred Kunz was a 67-year-old parish priest at St. Michael’s church in the rural town of Dane, Wisconsin.

He recorded radio shows and was known for his love of the traditional Latin Mass, serving as a parish priest for 31 years. He often cooked cod at the local fish fries on Friday nights in an effort to raise money for the parish school.

On March 4, 1998, Fr. Kunz was found dead in a pool of blood with a slit across his throat inside St. Michael’s school.

The killer was never found.

In an effort to revive Fr. Kunz’s cold case 20 years later, the local police department is launching a social media campaign to see if there is any new information on who killed the priest.

“On the 20th anniversary, we thought we would start releasing information to the public that has not been publicly released,” said David J. Mahoney, a Dane County Sheriff, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“I’m at a position in this case now, that if we haven’t solved it in 20 years, we need to do something different,” Mahoney continued.

Theories behind the murder abound, ranging from an attempt to prevent the priest from exposing sexual abuse to the work of a Satanic temple active near the parish. Fr. Kunz was reported to have a harsh, controlling personality, and police officials had told reporters that there were suggestions of financial and sexual impropriety in connection with the priest.

The social media campaign includes posts from the police department with the hashtag #whokilledfatherkunz. The posts include information about the case, such as the murder weapon, which was never found, and various conversations that Fr. Kunz had in the last days of his life.

In addition to the campaign, Kunz’s cold case will be featured on season three of the podcast “Unsolved,” which is currently under production.

William Yallaly, chancellor of the Diocese of Madison, told CNA that the sheriff’s office initiated the investigation, but the diocese is in full support.

He noted that Bishop Robert Morlino, who currently heads the diocese, arrived several years after the death of Fr. Kunz, but said that the bishop has affirmed the sheriff in undertaking the campaign to re-open the case.

“We want the truth to come out, whatever it is,” Yallaly said.

Regarding reports of possible motives, he noted, “We have heard rumors, gossip, and third party accusations, but have not received any concrete accusations of romantic, sexual, or financial improprieties.”

He encouraged the faithful to “pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Kunz.”

Over the weekend a Requiem Mass was celebrated in honor of Fr. Kunz, marking the twentieth anniversary of his death.

“He was a very holy man,” said Fr. Richard Heilman of St. Mary’s parish.

Although two decades have passed since his death, Mahoney hopes that the killer will come forward with a guilty conscience, or a perhaps a family member of the killer will offer new information.

In the initial investigation of the murder, the sheriff said, investigators may have focused too narrowly on one suspect, although there were several other people of interest.

However, Mahoney is hopeful that the new campaign could give them the second wind they need to close the case.

“We’re at the 10-yard line, but we’re pitted against a pretty strong defense and we need a good Aaron Rodgers to get us across the goal line.”

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