Protecting religious hospitals

Richard A. Sokerka

One of the greatest gifts to our health care system in the United States is the many faith-based hospitals we have. Faith-based hospitals’ strong religious heritage drives them to provide compassionate care to people of all faiths and backgrounds — and their wellness services go beyond just providing medical care. We see that every day at the Catholic hospitals within the boundaries of the Diocese of Paterson: St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson; St. Joseph’s Wayne Hospital; St. Mary’s General Hospital, Passaic, and St. Clare’s Hospital with campuses in Boonton; Denville and Dover.

These faith-based hospitals also provide benefits to their employees, including pensions through the hospitals’ comprehensive church pension plans. Yet their beliefs and the charitable work they all do across our nation have been threatened by a group of plaintiffs’ lawyers who were specifically targeting religious hospitals.

Their argument was that hospital ministries were not religious enough to have a tax-exempt church pension plan under The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). As the Becket Fund points out, “It is not the job of lawyers to decide that hospitals can’t be part of a church, and the IRS has rightly viewed these ministries as part of a larger church for more than three decades.”

Becket has been involved in this religious liberty case since the legal campaign against faith-based hospitals began in 2013. In 2015, the case Overall v. Ascension Health was settled. In 2016 three other cases were appealed to the Supreme Court, while almost 100 more are waiting in lower courts across the country. On Aug, 15, 2016, Becket filed a friend-of-the-court brief at the Supreme Court supporting the hospitals and their right to freely exercise their religious-based mission to provide compassionate healthcare according to their faith.

The Supreme Court heard oral argument in March and on June 5 it voted unanimously 8-0 to protect religious hospitals founded and run by nuns, allowing them to continue providing benefits for their employees as well as free health services to the poor in the communities they serve.

This unanimous decision signals yet another victory for our religious liberties. It seems the tide is turning ever so slowly so that these inalienable rights will no longer be tread upon by the government as they have been in the last decade.

The Supreme Court ruling is especially heartening as we mark the U.S. Conference of Bishops’ annual Fortnight for Freedom from June 21 — the vigil of the feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More — to July 4, Independence Day.

During the Fortnight to Freedom, most especially in this time of increasing polarization in our culture, we should all contribute to a better understanding of religious freedom in a way that respects all people.

Followers of Christ are called to live their faith in all that they do every day. During the Fortnight for Freedom pray, reflect, and take action to ensure religious liberty for all.