A religious freedom attorney warns that if a recent federal judge’s decision against the Diocese of Charlotte holds, religious institutions could face “massive financial penalties” for simply forming communities around their shared beliefs and practices.
In a unanimous decision June 17, the Supreme Court said that a Catholic social service agency should not have been excluded from Philadelphia’s foster care program because it did not accept same-sex couples as foster parents.
A statement by Pope Francis in a documentary film in which he endorses civil unions for same-sex couples has generated a great deal of buzz in the Catholic Church with religious leaders coming down on both sides of the issue.
