Government regulators may not recognize Catholic universities as religious institutions

January 12, 2011

After the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that a Catholic university’s fundamental purpose is secular, the Cardinal Newman Society warned that many Catholic institutions are risking their religious identity.

The NLRB ruled against Manhattan College in a case involving a bid to unionize the faculty. The NLRB ruled that the college is not exempt from regulations, despite its claim to be a Catholic institution, because “the purpose of the college is secular and not the ‘propagation of the faith.’”

Patrick Reilly, the president of the Cardinal Newman Society, warned that many American Catholic institutions of higher education may be subject to similar rulings because they have not guarded their Catholic identity. “For decades since the infamous Land O’Lakes declaration, too many Catholic colleges and universities have straddled the line between Catholic and secular,” Reilly said. Government regulatory agencies are now more demanding in their requirements that Catholic institutions prove themselves to be genuinely religious schools, he said. “For all but a handful of faithful Catholic colleges, this is a difficult if not impossible task.”

 

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Further information:

• Feds Tell College: You’re Not Catholic (Cardinal Newman Society)