Freedom of religion has become a victim of the drive for greater social tolerance as a result of Illinois' civil unions legislation.

It's hard to imagine that the majority of state legislators who voted to establish civil unions earlier this year intended the legislation also to bar Catholic Charities from continuing its four-decade role of providing foster care and adoption services for abused and homeless children.

But that's the result of a decision by Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt, who ruled last week that Gov. Quinn acted lawfully when he terminated the state's relationship with Catholic Charities.

The charity's crime is that because Catholic doctrine does not allow for the recognition of gay marriage or civil unions it referred homosexual couples seeking to adopt children to other agencies rather than serve them itself. For this failure to toe the ideological line, the state terminated $30 million in contracts with Catholic Charities, which oversees the welfare of more than 2,000 children statewide.

Is this what former state Rep. Bill Black, the Danville Republican, or current state Sen. Michael Frerichs, the Champaign Democrat, intended when they voted for the civil unions legislation? It's hard to imagine that they did, but this consequence does not come under the category of unintended.

It was easily foreseeable that advocates of civil unions would and will continue to use this law to hammer those who disagree with them.

Catholic Charities fought Quinn's decision and won a temporary victory a few weeks ago when Judge Schmidt issued a temporary injunction barring the state from terminating the Catholic Charities contracts. But after further considering the issue, Schmidt found, and reasonably so, that Catholic Charities is not entitled to keep its contract just because it has had contracts for so long. In other words, he said, Catholic Charities does not have a "protected property interest."

"No citizen has a right to contract with the state," he found.

Few would disagree with that. But Catholic Charities also has argued that it has a right to freely practice its religion and, therefore, cannot be forced to recognize what the Catholic Church regards as unacceptable behavior, just to maintain its state contracts.

Catholic Charities issued a statement noting that "the ruling does not address Catholic Charities' contention that the state of Illinois cannot refuse to contract with someone based on that person's exercise of religion." It said its attorneys are reviewing and have not decided how to proceed.

Obviously, Catholic Charities can appeal, and it would be no surprise if it did. That's where disputes like this are resolved.

But it is a shame and a disgrace that the state acted in such a manner.

The civil unions legislation was offered and passed, at least partly, on the premise that greater social tolerance would be good for Illinois.

But shouldn't there also be tolerance for religious dissenters, particularly those whose mission is to look out for the welfare of society's weakest and most vulnerable citizens? How are the interests of homeless children advanced by this sort of ideological scrum?

They aren't. And don't believe a word state officials say about how no child will fall through the cracks of the state's newly revamped social welfare system that excludes Catholic Charities.

Looking out for the interests of abused kids is difficult, at best. No good will come out of the bureaucratic reorganization Gov. Quinn has promised.

State legislators need to step in and clean up the mess they created with their civil union legislation. There has to be a way to provide this new status for homosexual couples and still respect the right of religious organizations to adhere to their faith.