Pastor Brian Dulli sent a clear message to the congregants of his suburban Madison St. Patrick’s Catholic Church: Voting for a Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate who stands for the killing of the unborn is perilous to your faith and soul.
Now, a left-wing group is threatening to get President Joe Biden’s IRS involved and go after the Diocese of Madison for “electioneering.”
With just a few days before Tuesday’s pivotal spring election that will decide whether conservatives or liberals control the state’s high court, Dulli is being attacked by the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. The atheist group has complained to the IRS that Dulli’s message in the church bulletin was “blatant electioneering” and is asking the agency to strip St. Patrick’s of its nonprofit tax status.
Why all the fuss? Dulli wrote in a church bulletin that voting for the pro-abortion candidate in Tuesday’s election runs counter to being a Catholic and the Catholic Church’s teachings on the sanctity of life.
“You cannot publicly support abortion or abortion advocates and remain a Catholic in good standing,” Dulli wrote. “The fact that this is a Supreme Court race does not exempt us from our duty to protect life …. As a Catholic, I urge you, for the salvation of your soul; do not vote for her in the Supreme Court race on April 4.”
While he didn’t mention the candidates by name, he was clearly referring to liberal Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, who is running against former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly. The winner will later this year take the seat of Justice Pat Roggensack, who is retiring after two, 10-year terms on the court. Roggensack is one of four justices that lean conservative on the seven-member court. If Protasiewicz wins, liberals will take back the majority, power they have not had in more than a decade.
In an exclusive interview with The Wisconsin Daily Star, Dulli said his faith demanded he warns St. Patrick’s congregants about the spiritual pitfalls of voting for a pro-abortion candidate.
“This, for me, is about salvation of soul,” the priest said. “If I don’t tell the truth about what the Church defines as material cooperation and evil, we are culpable for the same crime, too.
“People may think one vote doesn’t equal one abortion, that it is a voluntary act. But when we have candidates who are making the race entirely about (abortion), I feel we have little choice. Anything less signals to our opponents and our own people that we are willing to put the pinch of incense that we tolerate a society in which abortion has a place on the table.”
Dulli, who also serves as chaplain of the Wisconsin State Council of the Knights of Columbus, also wrote a heartfelt appeal on the subject in the latest Knights of Columbus newsletter. The statewide newsletter is set for release on Saturday.
The priest notes the Catholic Church’s celebrations of Holy Week, the holiest of days in the Christian faith. He writes that the mystery of Jesus’ passion, guided by the hand of His Heavenly Father, is also the result of real human choices.
“The events of the Passion transpired because of choices by disciples like Peter and even Judas along with Jewish leaders and even Romans like Pilate. The Son of God came into this world at one unique moment in history. The people had to make the choice either to serve Him or to condemn Him,” Dulli writes.
And the pastor asserts he, too, has a choice — to tell the truth.
“It is not my job to endorse candidates, but it is my job to convict Catholics and warn them when it comes to sin. Sometimes different job descriptions overlap over the same ground. That is often the case in politics,” Dulli writes. “Is there a Supreme Court candidate making this race entirely an effort to legalize abortion. You have to study carefully and decide. Are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Or will you condemn fellow humans to death in the womb? You have to decide. There couldn’t be more at stake in your decision. I’m praying for you.”
Crossing the Line?
The Freedom From Religion Foundation wants the priest and his church to pay.
“We write to respectfully request that the IRS immediately investigate St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and ensure that it no longer receives the benefits of 501(c)(3) status and that donations made to the church are no longer treated as tax deductible,” Freedom From Religion Foundation staff attorney Christopher Line wrote in a letter to the IRS.
Federal law does draw a line on churches engaged in political activity. In 1954, Congress approved an amendment by then-Senator Lyndon Johnson (D-Texas) to prohibit 501(c)(3) organizations, which includes charities and churches, from engaging in any political campaign activity. Congress has strengthened the ban over the past 70 years. The most recent change came in 1987 when Congress amended the language to clarify that the prohibition also applies to statements opposing candidates.
Currently, the law prohibits political campaign activity by charities and churches by defining a 501(c)(3) organization as one “which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”
“In this instance, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church has breached the responsibilities of its tax exempt status by openly opposing a candidate for elected office,” the Freedom from Information letter claims.
But has the church crossed the political ban line?
Madison conservative talk show host Vicki McKenna, who praised her priest on her show for his religious convictions, doesn’t think so.
“It shouldn’t be controversial that a Catholic is being Catholic, telling other Catholics it’s not a sometimes thing,” she said. “He told his church that killing babies is wrong.”
McKenna notes former President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, a far-left activist, is scheduled to stump for Protasiewicz in Wisconsin this weekend. She says he is scheduled to attend services at a Madison church.
“Eric Holder will be ELECTIONEERING for No Jail Janet at Mt. Zion Baptist & Lake Edge Unity Church of Christ in Madison SUNDAY morning. Will the #MadisonPress eviscerate the pastors of these churches–like they did a priest who simply warned Catholics supporting abortion is a sin?” talk show host wrote in a tweet Friday.
Eric Holder will be ELECTIONEERING for No Jail Janet at Mt. Zion Baptist & Lake Edge Unity Church of Christ in Madison SUNDAY morning. Will the #MadisonPress eviscerate the pastors of these churches–like they did a priest who simply warned Catholics supporting abortion is a sin?
— Vicki McKenna (@VickiMcKenna) March 31, 2023
Rights and Responsibilities
The IRS rarely penalizes churches for endorsing political candidates, a point driven home in an article co-published by the Texas Tribune and the left-leaning ProPublica. The piece asserts “the IRS has largely abdicated its enforcement responsibilities as churches have become more brazen about publicly backing candidates.”
But Biden’s IRS has targeted religious organizations. In June 2021, 15 Republican members of Congress sent IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig a letter raising concerns about the IRS’ treatment of a Christian group in Texas called Christians Engaged. The group released a letter from the IRS stating that the federal tax agency denied the group 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, saying “Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates.”
“These issues have always been at the core of Christian belief and classifying them as inherently political is patently absurd,” the lawmakers, including Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), wrote. “If the IRS applied this interpretation broadly, it would jeopardize the tax-exempt status of thousands of Christian churches around the country.”
Christians Engaged works to get Christians more active in government.
The IRS eventually reversed its decision.
The IRS under Obama was found to have targeted conservative organizations applying for nonprofit status.
In 2017, then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order easing the ban on tax-exempt organizations such as churches engaging in political speech.
“We are giving our churches their voices back,” Trump said.
Some Democrats have pushed for taking tax-exempt status from churches that don’t play by progressive rules.
At CNN’s Equality Town Hall focused on LGBTQ issues and co-hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke was asked by CNN’s Don Lemon if he thought “religious institutions like colleges, churches, charities, should they lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage?”
“Yes,” O’Rourke replied, adding that “there can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us.”
Dulli is not alone in his statements of faith regarding pro-abortion candidates. A higher authority, Archbishop of Milwaukee Jerome E. Listecki, wrote in a message to Catholics this week that the “killing of the innocent has never been supported by Catholic Church Teachings.”
“We must take our responsibility, as citizens before God’s judgment, for the times we have supported the destruction of the innocent. We must also take responsibility for the lack of support for the protection of the innocent when we vote for candidates and laws that liberalize abortion laws,” Listecki wrote.
Will the atheists at the Freedom from Religion Foundation target the archbishop next?
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Janet Protasiewicz” by Janet for Justice. Background Photo “Wisconsin Supreme Court” by Royalbroil. CC BY-SA 3.0.
