Posted on 07/23/2012 1:12:47 PM PDT by marshmallow
A law professor at Duquesne university is accusing the bishops of crossing the line separating church and state and even suggests an appalling interesting array of punishments and penalties in America Magazine.
Nicholas P. Cafardi, dean emeritus and professor of law at Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, Pa. accused some bishops of vexing and oppressing people, electioneering and lobbying, and attempting to take away people’s constitutional rights. Cafardi suggested that as a penalty the IRS could remove the Church’s tax exempt status or simply fine those bishops their per diem salaries every day they open their mouths against the HHS mandate or gay “marriage.”
Cafardi accused Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Illinois, of “electioneering” for his forceful words about the “extreme secularist agenda” of the Obama administration in light of the HHS mandate. Cafardi also points to Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, Wash., launching a signature drive in parishes to put Referendum 74 on the statewide ballot to repeal Washington’s new same-sex marriage law as an example of “lobbying.”
“Churches cannot electioneer at all. The prohibition is absolute. They may not intervene in any way in a campaign for political office either in favor of a candidate or in opposition to one,” writes Cafardi. “With lobbying, an attempt to influence legislation, there is some wiggle room. There the law allows churches to lobby, but only to an ‘insubstantial’ degree.”
Cafardi explains that he believes the Church’s tax exemption is akin to a tax subsidy and then adds, “Our tax dollars should not be used to subsidize partisan political activities of tax exempt organizations.” So in Cafardi’s view, donations you might make to the Church are “tax dollars.” But isn’t the entire point that they’re not taxed dollars?
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.cardinalnewmansociety.org ...
Does this also apply to the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Reverend Al Sharpton?
Free speech?
What’s that?
Sounds like a fancy word for “racism” to me.
Now why don’t you go pay your taxes? Your government is broke. :)
Guess who runs Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh and pays this jerk’s salary?
I’ll bet u this jackass is a HOMO!...Or motivated by them....
Cafardi has it ass backwards. A church's charitable and educational activity is a subsidy to the government which would otherwise have to spend tax money to care for more broken homes, dysfunctional families, winos and druggies.
The only exceptions are favored ultraleft religions which openly lobby for bigger government, namely:
The prohibition has never been enforced, because it would easily and swiftly be thrown out on first amendment grounds.
There is no line.
The government cannot establish a religion. The government cannot prohibit the free exercise of religion.
Religion can do whatever it damn well pleases.
Hey moron! It’s the State crossing Church lines.
You stupid POS!
His obvious inability to understand the Constitution is grounds for dismissal because he’s obviously incapable of teaching a high school civics class much less being a professor at a law school.
Well that explains why when some Religious relative signed her up for a subscription to America magazine my mom always put it thru the shredder.
The Bishops are out of options. They did not pick this fight, Obama did. Obama is not backing down. Either the Bishops openly oppose his re-election or hold their peace and allow the Government to dictate to them how to conduct Church business.
This clown has no business drawing his salary from a Catholic school if he does not understand this.
A few weeks ago, my mother in law was in town, and we ended up going to church in Davenport. The priest praised Obamacare, and said that it was needed to help the poor much more than than anything else. Then went on bad mouthing those in his parish (a small town one of 200 people) for not voting to support the mandate.
Yet Jenky gets flack, and that man does not. Interesting.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if all charitable deductions were eliminated from the tax code? Maybe God’s shepherds would begin SAVING their flocks!
This prof (Italian, in this case—most of the time it’s Irish) is obviously one of the usual suspects, either a lapsed or heretical Catholic.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaMLoLtFn6s&feature=related. Watch the following three chapters as well.
Stopped reading right there.
The government cannot establish a religion. The government cannot prohibit the free exercise of religion.
Religion can do whatever it damn well pleases.
I can't say it any better. They need to find a new law professor.
I am pretty certain the Bishops consulted with their legal advisers before taking the action they did. Nothing they did conflicts with the law regarding tax status.
Obama is trying to effect a UNION of Church and State by dictating to the Church. He see a split in the Church, because of guys like Cafardi. Yes, the tax exemption is a privilege. Because as John Marshall said, the power to tax is the power to destroy.
O would prefer using the current situation as a conduit to creating his own American Patriotic catholic Association/church (note the small “c”s). He’d rather co-opt whomever he can toward that end. Think Sebelius (excommunicated), Biden and Pelosi. The tax exempt status is a tool, one among many he’s trying to use for this purpose. And he’s smart enough to know, and intend, that those left-leaning and easily led, will at least think along these lines: Go with the Flow.
The law professor in this story is another tool. There may be some who are swayed by this, likely of the watching-too-much-reality-based-tv crowd, but then there are always some of the flock who may be easily misled. I’d strongly suggest that everyone here, Catholic, protestant, whomever, do some reading up on the events of the French revolution, the subsequent Italian revolution, the Mexican one in the earlier twentieth century. Similar tactics are and will be used here, since history rhymes more than repeats. The most unfortunate part is for those who fall away. Pray. Fervently. Even for folks like Cafardi, who knows exactly how unfactual his words are.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.