The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) in the Diocese of Superior is not exempt from the state’s employment tax, saying its work is secular, not religious, and therefore does not meet the standard for a religious exemption.
The court declared that the work of assisting the aged and the poor that CCB and its “sub-entities” undertake would be the same if it was done by people with no religious motivation.
“In other words, they offer services that would be the same regardless of the motivation of the provider, a strong indication that the sub-entities do not ‘operate primarily for religious purposes,’” Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote for the majority.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, an advocacy firm that defended CCB in this case, and fights religious liberty cases nationwide, announced it would appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court, where a series of decisions in recent years have endorsed robust exemptions for religious organisations from laws that the religious groups believe infringe upon their beliefs.
“The Wisconsin Supreme Court got this case dead wrong,” said Eric Rassbach, vice-president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “CCB is religious, whether Wisconsin recognises that fact or not.”
The case highlights the wildly different perspectives about the role of religion in American society.
“Without assessing the specifics of the Wisconsin case or the workplace policies of these Catholic ministries, one critical misjudgment by critics and regulators needs to be addressed,” commented John Carr, founder of Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought in Public Life.
“The fact that Catholic charitable ministries serve those in need regardless of their faith is a sign that they are in fact Catholic ministries, not simply secular agencies.
“When I served as secretary for social concerns in the Archdiocese of Washington, Cardinal [James] Hickey would consistently point out that: ‘We serve the hungry, homeless, and sick, not because they are Catholic, but because we are. We serve “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40) because we believe they are Jesus in disguise and our judgement depends on how we care for them.’
“These charitable ministries are signs of the Gospel and works of our Catholic faith.”
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