The Catholic Diocese of Belleville and Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois said Thursday that they would part ways in the wake of a new state law that granted same-sex couples the right to seek civil unions and disrupted the work of Catholic agencies working in foster care and adoption.

The announcement came in separate statements months after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services stopped referring foster care and adoption cases to Catholic charitable groups. Catholic agencies have refused to license same-sex couples in civil unions as foster parents, a position the state sees as discriminatory.

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