That’s true to an extent, and I also always used to think that if they refused to take government money, they’d be free to run their agencies the way they wanted. However, it’s more complicated than that. Children are usually placed in these agencies not directly (by parents who can’t care for them, for example) but through the city or the courts, which contracts with the agencies to provide care. However, this means that the city also demands certain things, which once upon a time were fairly harmless and related to standards of care, etc., but are now mostly things that are part of the secular social engineering program.
About 20 years ago, Cardinal O’Connor faced down the City of New York, which was demanding that girls in foster care be given “access” to abortion and contraception. Since the Church took care of huge numbers of NY’s foster children, the City gave way. But things have changed since then and the secular program is much more aggressive. The Church has already lost a couple of cases already involving resistance to these things (payment of benefits for “gay spouses,” etc.).
In addition, the laws have been extended so that even to qualify to be licensed for foster care or adoption services, you have to comply with the state’s social engineering policies. Since no agency or entity can operate without a license, this means that even if they don’t accept a single client from the city or the courts and concentrate entirely on private adoptions or foster care, they still have to comply with all of the licensing requirements.
So it’s unfortunately not as easy as it used to be. Caesar is busy sealing off the exits.
Thank you for this clear explanation. Unfortunately, too many social conservatives advise Christians that they can simply disengage from public institutions that are going to the devil. But those institutions set norms for society that we simply cannot avoid, if only because we must live in the same world with those whose lives are shaped by them.
I’m sure that the Bolsheviks want the state to administer everything, whether it be social programs run by religious non-profits or anything else run by the private sector. Even the “private sector” companies have to hire so many token blacks, Hispanics, and women to be awarded any government contracts; Caesar has flexed his muscle there already.