The Catholic Church “maintains its stance of not endorsing or opposing political candidates,” US Conference of Catholic Bishops spokesperson Chieko Noguchi said following a recent court case in which a long-standing federal ban against such activity appeared to have been partly relaxed. Source: OSV News.
Ms Noguchi issued the statement on July 8, a day after the Internal Revenue Service agreed in a court filing that a house of worship addressing its congregation about electoral politics in the context of religious faith does not violate the Johnson Amendment.
Approved by Congress in 1954, the amendment prohibits 501(c)(3) organisations — a type of tax-exempt nonprofit under US tax code, and the typical corporate structure for churches, worship communities and charities in the nation — from engaging in political campaign activity. In 1987, Congress clarified that the ban includes statements opposing candidates.
In August 2024, the National Religious Broadcasters — which describes itself as a “nonpartisan, international association of Christian communicators” that promotes both members’ free speech rights and professional development — and several other plaintiffs filed suit against the IRS, claiming the Johnson Amendment violated their First and Fifth Amendment rights, as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
On July 7, the NRB and the IRS jointly filed with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas for a court-approved settlement, with the motion stating, “When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither ‘participate(s)’ nor ‘intervene(s)’ in a ‘political campaign,’ within the ordinary meaning of those words.”
In addition, said the motion, “this interpretation of the Johnson Amendment is in keeping with the IRS’s treatment of the Johnson Amendment in practice”.
However, Ms Noguch said, “The IRS was addressing a specific case, and it doesn’t change how the Catholic Church engages in public debate”.
“The Church seeks to help Catholics form their conscience in the Gospel so they might discern which candidates and policies would advance the common good,” she said in her statement. “The Catholic Church maintains its stance of not endorsing or opposing political candidates.”
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Catholic Church holds firm on not taking stand on political candidates, despite possible IRS shift (By Gina Christian, OSV News)
