Denver Newsroom, Mar 22, 2022 / 17:10 pm
Michigan officials tried to bar funds for Catholic child placement agencies. Instead, they are paying at least $800,000 in legal fees in settling two agencies’ successful First Amendment challenges.
Catholic Charities West Michigan is the second Catholic agency in the state to reach a six-figure settlement with officials who had wrongly barred state funds to foster and adoption agencies that did not place children with same-sex couples.
“Catholic Charities West Michigan meets a critical need as one of the region’s largest social service providers, reuniting children with their birth parents and placing foster kids in loving homes,” Jeremiah Galus, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, said March 21.
“We are pleased Catholic Charities can continue its vital mission serving vulnerable families in Michigan without being punished by the government simply because it’s operating according to its religious beliefs—the very reason the ministry exists in the first place,”