Catholic News Agency reports (January 7, 2026) that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld Union Gospel Mission of Yakima’s right to hire only employees adhering to their beliefs about marriage and sexuality. The court invoked the “ministerial exception” and “church autonomy” to block Washington’s anti-discrimination law, claiming this prevents government interference in religious missions. This ruling continues the legal trajectory from Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC (2012) to Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020), extending protections to non-ministerial roles. Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jeremiah Galus hailed it as affirming religious groups’ right to hire “fellow believers who share that calling.”
Naturalistic Presuppositions Inherent in Secular “Religious Freedom”
The court’s ruling rests on the heretical premise that the State grants churches autonomy rather than recognizing their divine origin. Pius IX unequivocally condemned this inversion in the Syllabus of Errors (1864): “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55). By framing religious liberty as a constitutional concession rather than Christus Rex‘s inherent dominion over nations, the judiciary perpetuates the modernist myth of state sovereignty over spiritual matters.
Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925) establishes the only legitimate framework for such discussions: “Rulers of nations…publicly honor and obey Christ…so that the entire human society may be dissolved no longer.” The court’s decision notably omits Christ’s Social Kingship, instead reducing “religious mission” to a private activity tolerated within secular parameters. This mirrors the condemned proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can reconcile himself with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Syllabus, Error 80).
Protestant Ecclesiology Masquerading as Catholic Victory
Union Gospel Mission’s victory exemplifies the ecclesiological bankruptcy of conciliar sect fellow travelers. The organization’s demand to enforce sexual morality while operating within a pluralistic legal system constitutes theological schizophrenia. Lamentabili Sane (1907) condemns those who claim “Christian doctrine was initially Jewish, but through gradual development, it became first Pauline, then Johannine” (Error 60) – precisely the evolutionist heresy underlying Protestant congregationalism.
The article’s celebration of Alliance Defending Freedom – a pan-Protestent legal group – collaborating with putative Catholics exposes the ecumenical rot denounced by St. Pius X: “They are not afraid to affirm that these shady congregations aim only at the profit of society” (Syllabus condemnation of secret societies). True Catholic action requires no collaboration with heretical organizations, as the Council of Trent anathematized those who claim “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion” (Syllabus, Error 18).
Omission of the Church’s Exclusive Rights
Nowhere does the article reference the sine qua non of Catholic hiring practices: the profession of the true Faith. The court’s focus on “sincerely held religious belief” equates truth with subjective conviction, violating the dogmatic principle that “outside the Church there is no salvation” (Council of Florence). Pius XII’s Mystici Corporis (1943) emphasizes that only those “actually professing the Catholic Faith” belong to Christ’s Mystical Body.
The ruling’s extension to “non-ministerial” positions remains fundamentally flawed, as every employee of a Catholic institution must advance Regnum Christi. As Pius XI declared: “If princes and magistrates duly elected…have the obligation of conducting their government…according to the laws of God, much more is this duty binding on those who direct a Christian family” (Quas Primas). This hierarchical ordering of society toward Christ the King remains conspicuously absent from both the legal decision and its reporting.
Symptomatic Silence on the Church’s Divine Constitution
The article’s glaring omission – the failure to distinguish Catholic institutions from Protestant sects – reveals the conciliar sect’s apostasy. True Catholic media would cite Canon 1381 of the 1917 Code: “Ecclesiastical offices cannot be conferred on non-Catholics.” Instead, the report implicitly endorses religious indifferentism by celebrating a ruling that applies equally to all “faith groups.”
This aligns with Vatican II’s heretical declaration Dignitatis Humanae, which Pius IX had preemptively condemned: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Syllabus, Error 15). The court’s reliance on “sincerely held belief” rather than objective truth demonstrates how conciliar errors enable the State to arbitrate religious legitimacy – the very antithesis of Quas Primas‘ mandate that “civil authority must submit to Christ.”
Conclusion: Pyrrhic Victory in a Godless Legal System
While superficially favorable, this ruling constitutes another surrender to secular hegemony. By accepting the State’s authority to “permit” religious hiring practices, Catholic institutions acknowledge Caesar’s pretended supremacy over Christ’s Church. As Pius XI warned: “When God and Jesus Christ are removed from laws and states…the foundations of authority are destroyed” (Quas Primas). Until courts recognize Christ’s Social Kingship – not mere “religious freedom” – such rulings remain Satanic parodies of justice, binding men tighter to the City of Man while paying lip service to the City of God.
Source:
Federal appeals court affirms religious organizations can choose to hire only fellow believers (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 07.01.2026