CV NEWS FEED // Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a prior decision of the state Supreme Court that declared the organization to be “non religious.”
According to a news release from the organization’s legal team at Becket Law, the Aug. 9 appeal came after the state Court’s ruling on March 14 that blocked the Catholic non-profit from opting out of the state’s unemployment compensation program to join a “better” program offered by Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops.
“Catholic Charities Bureau carries out our Diocese’s essential ministry of caring for the most vulnerable members of our society,” Bishop James Powers of the Diocese of Superior stated in the release. “We pray the Court will recognize that this work of improving the human condition is rooted in Christ’s call to care for those in need.”
The state Court determined in its ruling that Catholic Charities was not exempt from the state’s unemployment compensation program “because it serves everyone, not just Catholics,” according to Becket:
The court said that Catholic Charities could qualify for an exemption only if it limited its hiring to Catholics and tried to convert those it served—even though the Catholic Church forbids Catholics from conditioning assistance on acceptance of the Church’s teachings.
In its petition to the Supreme Court, Becket challenged the Court to consider whether the state violates the organization’s religious freedom by denying it “an otherwise-available tax exemption because the organization does not meet the state’s criteria for religious behavior.”
“It shouldn’t take a theologian to understand that serving the poor is a religious duty for Catholics,” Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, also stated in the release.
“But the Wisconsin Supreme Court embraced the absurd conclusion that Catholic Charities has no religious purpose,” he continued. “We’re asking the Supreme Court to step in and fix that mistake.”
