When the Catholics seek to influence the society around us, or even just want to practice our faith in the public square, the secularists scream about the separation of church and state. But when it’s the other way around, I don’t hear the same complaints. In Rockford, Illinois, the city is trying to impose historic landmark status on a Catholic church and the diocese says if it does so, it will close the parish. The landmark status would prevent the Church from making changes to the building or selling it. Sorry folks you can’t have it both ways.
Wasn’t there a federal law that prevented governments from doing just this? I seem to remember a similar case in Austin regarding the cathedral. Maybe it was overturned by the courts.
It was decided by the SC in 1996 that the Church had a free exercise of religion right which could not be superceded by a landmark law. It upheld the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
I’m surprised that the city of Rockford thinks it can enforce its landmark status based on precedents.