Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 31, 2024 / 17:45 pm

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman threw his support behind a Park Hills Catholic church that is embroiled in a legal battle over the proposed construction of a shrine within its property.

“It’s not up to the courts to decide how we exercise our religion in this country,” Coleman said in a statement.

“For centuries, Americans have bravely fought and died for the right to practice their faith without substantial burden from the government,” the attorney general added. “We proudly continue that fight today. Our office stands with the men and women of faith who simply want to exercise their rights.”

Coleman signed an amicus brief, also known as a “friend of the court” brief, in defense of the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, which operates the Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel in the northern Kentucky city just south of Cincinnati.

The religious association seeks to construct a grotto shrine that pays homage to a series of famous Marian apparitions in Lourdes, France, in 1858. The proposed shrine would include a statue of Mary inside a grotto, a statue of St. Bernadette — who testified to seeing the 19th-century apparition — a patio, and a walkway.

The Missionaries of St. John the Baptist in 2021 applied to the Park Hills city board for a variance from a zoning ordinance that would prevent the construction of the shrine — one that the board granted in spite of objections from some neighbors. Those neighbors then filed a lawsuit to prevent the chapel from constructing the shrine.

Some neighbors objected to the construction of the shrine based on concerns about traffic and parking if the shrine were to become a popular pilgrimage site. Their lawsuit argued that the city board did not have the authority to grant the variance for the construction of the site. Although a lower court ruled in favor of the city and the chapel, an appellate court overruled that judgment and sided with the neighbors.

The case is now before the Kentucky Supreme Court, which will determine whether the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist can begin construction of the proposed shrine.

CNA reached out to the chapel for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

In a question and answer published by the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, the religious association addressed some of those concerns, stating that there would not be special grotto events that would generate traffic and that the shrine would “simply [be] a [complement] to the church as a place to pray and reflect.”

“We are not expecting any additional traffic other than what is normal for daily Mass,” the document added. “… All across our country, the grottos remain quiet and reflective places … not tourist attractions.”

The amicus brief filed by the attorney general’s office argues that the city was correct to allow the construction of the shrine based on the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Under the law, zoning laws cannot substantially burden a church’s exercise of religion.

“St. John wants to build a shrine next to its existing historic church building, which it has occupied for years,” Coleman wrote in the amicus brief. “St. John has or likely has no feasible alternative locations given the specific purpose of its religious exercise: to let its congregants use the shrine before and after Mass.”

The amicus brief cites various case law to argue that preventing the construction of the shrine would be a substantial burden on the chapel. It also argues that, under judicial precedent, the court should not make its determination based on whether its members feel the shrine is an important part of the association’s religious worship or whether they could simply practice their faith in other ways.

“Such judgments are off limits for courts — and rightly so,” Coleman added. “We do not want courts trying to make such judgment calls about matters of people’s faith.”

The Notre Dame Law School’s Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic also filed an amicus brief in support of the chapel’s grotto construction proposal, arguing that denying the plan is a substantial burden on religious exercise.

“[The law’s] sweeping protection includes all forms of sincere religious exercise, whether central to that religion or not,” Meredith Kessler, a staff attorney for the Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic, said in a statement. 

“Whether the Catholic faith mandates that St. John construct a grotto on its property to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary is irrelevant,” Kessler added. “The Kentucky Supreme Court should reject the lower court’s effort to limit the statute’s scope based on its own view of what exactly the Catholic faith requires.”

The Kentucky Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case but has not yet scheduled oral arguments.