The Denver Archdiocese and affiliated preschools petition the U.S. Supreme Court for inclusion in Colorado’s Universal Preschool Program, as reported by Catholic News Agency on November 15, 2025. The legal challenge follows a 10th Circuit Court ruling permitting Colorado to exclude religious schools requiring adherence to Catholic teachings on sexuality and gender identity. Becket Fund attorney Nick Reaves decries this as “religious discrimination,” claiming it violates “decades of Supreme Court rulings.” Archdiocesan official Scott Elmer frames the demand as seeking “the same access to free preschool services” available to secular institutions.
Secular Subordination of Ecclesiastical Mission
The petition reveals a fundamental inversion of Catholic ecclesiology. Quas primas (Pius XI, 1925) declares Christ’s kingship over all temporal powers: “Rulers of nations… must obey [Christ’s] laws and commands.” By begging secular authorities for validation, the Denver Archdiocese implicitly accepts the state’s jurisdiction over Church operations—a direct violation of Immortale Dei (Leo XIII): “The Church is a society chartered as of divine right… [with] absolute and far-reaching independence.”
Colorado’s nondiscrimination clause represents state-enforced apostasy. The Syllabus of Errors (Pius IX, 1864) condemns the notion that “the Church ought to be separated from the State” (Error 55) and that “Catholics may approve of… education unconnected with Catholic faith” (Error 48). By demanding conformity to gender ideology, Colorado enacts what Lamentabili sane (Pius X, 1907) identifies as modernism’s core error: subordinating divine law to “human consciousness.”
Theological Bankruptcy of “Equal Access” Arguments
Becket Fund’s appeal to “universal preschool” exposes a naturalistic worldview antithetical to Catholic education’s supernatural purpose. Divini illius Magistri (Pius XI, 1929) insists Catholic schools exist primarily to form souls, not to function as social service providers. The lament over declining enrollment and shuttered schools betrays conciliar sect preoccupation with institutional survival rather than fidelity to truth. As Vehementer Nos (Pius X, 1906) teaches: “The Church would lose her chief title to glory… if she compromised with error.”
The archdiocese’s contention that families deserve “the same access” to state funds commits two fatal errors:
- It equates Catholic education with secular childcare—reducing the sacramental mission to commodity status
- It legitimizes state control through financial entanglement, violating Mirari Vos (Gregory XVI): “This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone.”
Modernist Contradictions in Legal Strategy
Becket Fund’s reliance on Espinoza v. Montana reveals the inherent contradiction of neo-conservative Catholicism. While correctly citing precedent against religious discrimination, the argument accepts the secular premise that education is primarily a state concern. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (Canon 1374) forbids Catholic schools from accepting “supervision by non-Catholics,” yet Denver’s lawsuit seeks precisely such oversight through program participation.
The silence regarding baptismal integrity in preschool admissions proves particularly damning. Traditional Catholic education prioritizes children of practicing Catholics (1917 CIC Canon 1373), yet Colorado’s program mandates indiscriminate enrollment. As Singulari quadam (Pius IX) warns: “They are in a state of perdition who hold that people can find the way of salvation… in any religion whatsoever.”
Ecclesiological Suicide Through Secular Entanglement
Scott Elmer’s plea for “equal access” constitutes ecclesiological suicide. The Syllabus condemns the notion that “Civil authority may interfere in matters relating to religion” (Error 44). By submitting to Colorado’s ideological litmus test, the archdiocese implicitly endorses the heresy that “the Roman pontiff can… come to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization” (Error 80).
The reported enrollment declines at Catholic preschools reveal conciliar sect failure to grasp Quas primas’ promise: “When men recognize… the royal prerogatives of Christ… new order of peace and justice follows.” True Catholic education flourishes through doctrinal purity, not state subsidies. Pascendi Dominici Gregis (Pius X) identifies the root error: “The Modernists… make the State the source of every right.”
Source:
Denver Archdiocese, Catholic schools ask Supreme Court for access to preschool program (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 15.11.2025