Is Catholic Charities really Catholic? (Don’t ask the Supreme Court)

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 03, 2025

Is Catholic Charities really Catholic? That’s a good question, an important question, a question that we have raised frequently on this site. But it’s not an appropriate question for the Supreme Court.

This past Monday, when Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin, a majority of the justices appeared to agree. As the New York Times put it, the arguments advanced by the State of Wisconsin “troubled justices across the ideological spectrum.”

The case involved a state agency’s determination—later affirmed by Wisconsin courts— that the Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) did not qualify for a religious exemption from unemployment taxes, because its activities were not undertaken “primarily for religious purposes.” Wisconsin’s highest court found that while CCB might have “religious motives,” nevertheless those motives were “incidental to their primarily charitable functions.”

A secular organization could perform the same charitable activities, Wisconsin officials argued, and the state’s high court agreed, saying that a truly religious organization would be characterized by “distinctively religious activities” such as “worship, ritual, teaching the faith, or spreading a religious message.” Since the CCB did not “attempt to imbue program participants with the Catholic faith,” the court ruled, it was not a religious organization.

The Trump administration, siding with the CCB in the Supreme Court case, rejected the Wisconsin claim. To grant the state’s argument, the Trump legal team argued, would “permit government officials or judges to second-guess the sufficiency of religious values, inspect practitioners’ adherence to religious doctrine, and discriminate among various faiths.”

American courts are usually (and rightly) very reluctant to intervene in religious debates, and the Supreme Court justices—even Justice Elena Kagan, who is not ordinarily sympathetic with the Trump approach—saw the question the same way. Some religions consider it important to draw others into their faith, Justice Kagan observed; others do not. So why should instruction in the faith be a standard on which the authenticity of a religious organization is measured? “Why are we treating some religions better than others on that element of religious doctrine,” she asked.

Lawyers representing the Catholic Charities Bureau reminded the court that the CCB is acting in accordance with the principles of the faith. After all, serving the needs of the poor is not an option for Christians; it is a demand of the faith. The mission statement of the Bureau proclaims its dedication to “carry on the redeeming work of our Lord by reflecting Gospel values and the moral teaching of the Church.”

That certainly sounds like the commitment of a religious organization. And if—as now expected—the Supreme Court agrees, then the Diocese of Superior will win the case, and the CCB will be exempt from unemployment taxes.

And yet the question remains: Is Catholic Charities really Catholic? That is not question for secular courts. It is, however, a question that faithful Catholics might ask.

The state of Wisconsin found that the activities of the Catholic Charities Bureau are indistinguishable from those of any other secular charity. Is that true? The Supreme Court seemed disinclined to examine that question. Catholic donors might think differently. Does the CCB seek out government funds, and carry out government contracts—which must, perforce, serve secular purposes? Does the Bureau duplicate the work of other charitable organizations, making them different only insofar as they are carried out under the banner of the Catholic Church?

To be sure, there is nothing wrong—nothing un-Christian or un-Catholic—about charitable work that serves secular purposes: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, providing housing for the homeless, instructing the ignorant.

Ah, but there’s the rub: instructing the ignorant. The Wisconsin Supreme Court found that the work of the Catholic Charities Bureau made no “attempt to imbue program participants with the Catholic faith.” If that is true, it is a harsh judgment.

Yes, the Gospel leaves no doubt that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, have an obligation to serve the poor. But poverty comes in many different forms, spiritual as well as material. An authentically Catholic charity would serve the feed the hungry, certainly. But it would not ignore spiritual hunger. The Lord commanded us to serve the poor. He also commanded us to “make disciples of all nations.” A truly “Catholic charity” would strive to do both.