Bishop Thomas Paprocki is suing Illinois officials over a pro-abortion law that could force the Catholic Church to hire people who oppose its teachings on moral issues.
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (LifeSiteNews) -- The Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, has filed a religious liberty lawsuit in response to a law that it says will force it to hire persons who do not support its moral teachings, including about abortion.
Bishop Thomas Paprocki has overseen the Springfield diocese since 2010, having previously served as an auxiliary bishop in Chicago under then-Cardinal Francis George. The Alliance Defending Freedom law center is representing the diocese along with fellow plaintiff the Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford.
Lawyers filed paperwork last Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Western Illinois against James Bennet, the director of the Illinois "Department of Human Rights," and Kwame Raoul, Illinois’ attorney general.
ADF Senior Council Mark Lippelmann said in a statement that “Illinois can’t force pro-life religious organizations to bend their knee to the state’s secular view of abortion.” The Constitution “protects the right of religious organizations to choose workers who will advance—rather than contradict—their religious beliefs."
At issue is the “Illinois Human Rights Act,” which the lawsuit says “renders Plaintiffs powerless to control deeply theological internal matters and to separate themselves from conduct that fatally undermines their mission and message.”
The ADF says the case is needed because the act “penalizes churches and religious organizations if they discipline or refuse to hire employees based on voluntary reproductive decisions like abortion, even when the religious entity considers the act murder of innocent life.”
Bishop Paprocki has been one of the more conservative-leaning bishops in the U.S. over the past 15 years. He has supported fellow bishops who deny Communion to divorced and “remarried” Catholics, has criticized Georgetown University for honoring pro-abortion Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, has defended the Church’s teachings against homosexuality, and has called out far-left Cardinal Cardinal Robert McElroy for backing the LGBT agenda, among numerous other instances of Bishop Paprocki's orthodoxy.
