The National Catholic Register reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a coalition of Colorado Catholic preschools excluded from the state’s “universal” tuition program because of their faith-based requirements regarding sexuality and gender identity. The case, St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, began in August 2023 when the Archdiocese of Denver and two Catholic parish preschools sued the Colorado Department of Early Childhood after being barred from the program due to their religious mission. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September 2025 that Colorado may continue excluding Catholic preschools, and the state’s governor, Jared Polis, celebrated the ruling as protecting students from “discrimination.” Catholic parents Dan and Lisa Sheley stated: “All we want is the freedom to choose the best preschool for our kids without being punished for our faith.” The Becket law firm, representing the families, expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would rule in favor of religious freedom. This case, however, exposes far more than a mere dispute over preschool funding—it reveals the complete bankruptcy of the post-conciliar Church’s capitulation to secular tyranny and the systematic persecution of authentic Catholic families by a state that has elevated sodomitic ideology to the status of civil religion.
The State as Anti-Church: Colorado’s Persecution of the Faithful
The facts of this case are straightforward and damning. Colorado established a “universal” preschool program promising tuition assistance to families for a school of their choice, whether public or private. Yet when Catholic preschools—specifically St. Mary Catholic Virtue Preschool in Littleton and others under the Archdiocese of Denver—sought to participate, they were excluded because they require teachers and families to sign a pledge upholding Catholic teaching on sexuality and gender identity. The state’s nondiscrimination clause, which mandates compliance with provisions on sexual orientation and gender identity, was wielded as a sword against the Catholic faith. This is not neutrality; it is persecution.
Governor Jared Polis, himself an open practitioner of the homosexual lifestyle, celebrated the 10th Circuit’s ruling with the language of the secular cult: “We are building a Colorado for all, where every student is free from discrimination.” This is the language of the abomination of desolation—the post-conciliar state that has replaced Christ the King with the idol of “inclusion.” Polis’s statement that the program “saves families more than $6,000 per year” and has “skyrocketed Colorado from 27th in preschool enrollment to third” is the language of materialism, reducing the education of immortal souls to a line item in a state budget. The state does not care about children; it cares about conformity. It does not seek to educate; it seeks to indoctrinate.
The Catholic parents’ response, while understandable in its natural dimension, reveals the tragic limitations of a faithful operating within a system that has already been captured by the enemies of Christ. Dan and Lisa Sheley stated: “All we want is the freedom to choose the best preschool for our kids without being punished for our faith.” Erika Navarrete Nagle added: “In a state that loudly preaches inclusion, it’s shocking to see Colorado go out of its way to exclude families like mine.” These are the words of the faithful who still believe that the secular state can be reasoned with, that “religious freedom” is a concept the state will honor. They do not yet understand that the modern state, by its very nature, is hostile to Christ the King and His Church.
The Syllabus of Errors and the Primacy of Christ the King
The Catholic position on the relationship between the Church and the state was defined with absolute clarity by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (1864). Proposition 39 condemned the error that “the State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits.” Proposition 44 condemned the claim that “the civil authority may interfere in matters relating to religion, morality and spiritual government.” Proposition 55 condemned the proposition that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” These are not optional opinions; they are condemned errors.
Pius IX, in the accompanying encyclical Qui Pluribus and the allocutions referenced in the Syllabus, made clear that the civil power has no authority to interfere in matters of religion, morality, or spiritual governance. The state’s claim to impose “nondiscrimination” provisions that contradict Catholic teaching on sexuality and gender identity is a direct exercise of the authority condemned in Proposition 44. Colorado’s nondiscrimination clause, which requires schools to affirm sodomitic ideology, is not a neutral regulation; it is a law that compels violation of the divine law. As St. Peter declared: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Pius XI, in the encyclical Quas Primas (1925), established the Feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that has now consumed Colorado and the entire Western world. He wrote: “We lamented the bitter fruits that such a defection from Christ has produced, both for individual citizens and for states.” He further stated: “When God and Jesus Christ—as we lamented—were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” Colorado’s exclusion of Catholic preschools is a direct fruit of this defection. The state has removed Christ from its laws and replaced Him with the idol of “inclusion” and “nondiscrimination” as defined by the sexual revolution.
Pius XI was unequivocal: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations or to those who, by receiving baptism according to law, belong to the Church, even though their erroneous opinions have led them astray or discord has separated them from love, but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” The state has no authority to exclude Catholic institutions from public benefits because of their faith. To do so is to deny the kingship of Christ and to elevate the state to the position of God—precisely the error condemned in the Syllabus.
The Post-Conciliar Capitulation: Why the “Church” Cannot Defend the Faithful
The most damning aspect of this case is not Colorado’s persecution—which is to be expected of a state in rebellion against God—but the complete inability of the post-conciliar structures to mount a credible defense of the faith. The Archdiocese of Denver, operating within the conciliar sect, has been reduced to filing lawsuits and hoping that the secular courts will grant it “religious freedom.” This is the logic of the abomination of desolation: the Church reduced to begging the state for crumbs from the table of secular power.
The conciliar sect, since the Second Vatican Council, has embraced the very principles that now enable Colorado’s persecution. Dignitatis Humanae, the conciliar declaration on religious freedom, taught that the human person has a right to religious immunity from external coercion in civil society. This document, condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium, provided the theological foundation for the secular state’s claim to neutrality in matters of religion. The conciliar sect taught the state that it had no obligation to Christ the King, and now the state has returned the favor by excluding Catholic institutions that refuse to conform to secular ideology.
The post-conciliar “bishops” and “cardinals” who occupy the Vatican have spent decades dismantling the Church’s doctrinal defenses against secularism. They have embraced false ecumenism, religious liberty, and the separation of Church and state—all condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Now, when the secular state turns its power against Catholic families, the conciliar structures have no weapons left. They cannot preach the Social Kingship of Christ, because they have denied it. They cannot invoke the Syllabus of Errors, because they have repudiated it. They can only file lawsuits and hope that the secular courts—the very courts that have legalized abortion, sodomy, and the sexual indoctrination of children—will grant them a temporary reprieve.
Nicholas Reaves of the Becket law firm stated: “The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that states cannot exclude families from government benefits because of their faith.” This is the language of naturalism—the error condemned in the Syllabus, Proposition 3: “Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of good and evil; it is law to itself.” The Becket law firm, like the conciliar structures it serves, places its hope in the Supreme Court rather than in Christ the King. It seeks justice from the state rather than from God. This is the sin of naturalism—the belief that the natural order can provide justice without reference to the supernatural.
The Theological Bankruptcy of “Religious Freedom”
The entire framework of “religious freedom” as understood in the post-conciliar era is theologically bankrupt. The pre-conciliar Church taught that the Catholic Church is the one true religion, that error has no rights, and that the state has a positive duty to profess and protect the Catholic faith. Proposition 77 of the Syllabus condemned the error that “in the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to exclusion of all other forms of worship.” Proposition 78 condemned the claim that “persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship.”
The conciliar sect, by embracing Dignitatis Humanae, adopted the very errors condemned by Pius IX. It taught that all religions have a right to public expression, that the state should be neutral in matters of religion, and that Catholics should seek “freedom” from the state rather than the state’s submission to Christ. The result is the present catastrophe: Catholic families must beg the state for the “freedom” to educate their children in the faith, and the state—now captured by sodomitic ideology—denies them that “freedom” because Catholic teaching on sexuality is deemed “discriminatory.”
The Catholic position is not that the state should grant “religious freedom” to Catholics. The Catholic position is that the state must recognize the Catholic Church as the one true religion and must conform its laws to the divine law. Pius XI declared in Quas Primas: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ, but let them fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.” Colorado’s refusal to recognize the Catholic faith and its exclusion of Catholic preschools from public benefits is a direct violation of this principle.
The parents’ plea—”universal means everyone”—is a natural argument, but it is not a Catholic argument. The Catholic argument is not that the state should include Catholics in its programs; the Catholic argument is that the state has no authority to establish programs that contradict the divine law, and that Catholics have no obligation to participate in such programs. The true Catholic response to Colorado’s “universal” preschool program is not to seek inclusion but to reject the program entirely and to establish independent Catholic institutions free from state control.
The Sodomitic Idol and the Perversion of “Nondiscrimination”
At the heart of this case is the state’s elevation of sodomitic ideology to the status of civil religion. Colorado’s nondiscrimination clause, which requires schools to affirm “sexual orientation and gender identity,” is not a neutral regulation; it is a dogma of the secular religion. It requires Catholic schools to affirm that sodomy is morally acceptable and that the denial of biological sex is a legitimate “identity.” This is not “nondiscrimination”; it is compelled heresy.
The Catholic Church has always taught that sodomy is a grave sin against nature, that it is “crying to God for vengeance” (Gen. 18:20), and that those who practice it shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). The Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches that sodomy is one of the four sins that “cry to heaven for vengeance.” The state’s requirement that Catholic schools affirm sodomitic ideology is a direct attack on the divine law and on the salvation of souls.
The state’s claim to protect students from “discrimination” is a perversion of the natural law. True discrimination—the ability to distinguish between good and evil, truth and error, virtue and vice—is a fundamental requirement of reason and morality. The state’s “nondiscrimination” is not the absence of discrimination; it is the compulsory affirmation of evil. It discriminates against Catholic families by excluding them from public benefits because they refuse to affirm sodomy. It discriminates against children by denying them access to Catholic education. It discriminates against the truth by elevating a lie—that sodomy is morally acceptable—to the status of civil dogma.
Governor Polis’s celebration of the 10th Circuit’s ruling is the celebration of a state that has declared war on the natural law. His statement that the program protects students from “discrimination” is Orwellian doublespeak: the state is “protecting” students by ensuring they are not exposed to Catholic teaching on sexuality. This is the logic of the abomination of desolation: the state as anti-Church, the state as the enemy of the family, the state as the destroyer of children’s souls.
The Failure of the Legal Strategy: Hoping in Princes
The legal strategy pursued by the Archdiocese of Denver and the Becket law firm is fundamentally flawed because it places hope in the secular state rather than in Christ the King. The Supreme Court, which has legalized abortion (Roe v. Wade, 1973; Dobbs v. Jackson, 2022, which returned the issue to the states but did not restore the right to life), sodomy (Lawrence v. Texas, 2003), and same-sex “marriage” (Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015), is not a friend of the Catholic faith. It is an institution captured by the same secular ideology that now drives Colorado’s persecution of Catholic preschools.
Reaves noted that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of religious freedom in previous cases—Maine tuition assistance (2022) and a Pennsylvania Catholic foster care agency (2021). But these victories are temporary and illusory. They do not change the fundamental reality: the secular state is hostile to the Catholic faith, and its “religious freedom” jurisprudence is a concession to political reality, not a recognition of the Church’s divine rights. The Supreme Court’s “religious freedom” is not the Catholic doctrine of the state’s obligation to Christ; it is the liberal doctrine of individual autonomy, which can be revoked at any time when it conflicts with the state’s preferred ideology.
The true Catholic response to state persecution is not legal strategy but supernatural resistance. The early Christians did not sue the Roman Empire for “religious freedom”; they confessed the faith and accepted martyrdom. The Catholic martyrs of England did not appeal to the English courts; they defied the state and died for Christ. The Catholic families of Colorado should not place their hope in the Supreme Court; they should place their hope in God and be prepared to sacrifice material benefits for the sake of their children’s souls.
As Our Lord declared: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). The $6,000 per year that Colorado offers is not worth the price of compromising the Catholic faith. The families who seek inclusion in the state’s program, however understandable their natural motivations, are in danger of losing sight of the supernatural end of education: the salvation of souls and the glory of God.
The Duty of Catholic Families: Separation from the World
The Catholic response to Colorado’s persecution must be twofold: first, a clear recognition that the modern state is in rebellion against Christ the King and cannot be trusted to protect the rights of the faithful; second, a firm resolve to establish and maintain independent Catholic institutions free from state control.
Pius XI warned in Quas Primas: “If men were ever to recognize Christ’s royal authority over themselves, both privately and publicly, then unheard-of blessings would flow upon the whole society.” The present catastrophe—the exclusion of Catholic preschools from public benefits, the elevation of sodomitic ideology to civil dogma, the persecution of faithful families—is the direct result of the state’s refusal to recognize Christ’s authority. The remedy is not to seek inclusion in the state’s programs but to withdraw from them entirely and to build a Catholic society independent of the state.
Catholic families must recognize that the state’s “universal” preschool program is not a benefit but a trap. It is a mechanism of indoctrination, designed to capture children at the earliest possible age and to subject them to the secular ideology of the state. The Catholic preschools that require families to sign a pledge upholding Catholic teaching on sexuality and gender identity are not being “discriminatory”; they are fulfilling their duty to God and to the souls entrusted to their care. The state’s exclusion of these preschools is not an injustice to be remedied by the courts; it is a persecution to be endured with faith and courage.
The words of St. Paul must guide the faithful: “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:2). Catholic families must not seek to be “conformed” to Colorado’s secular ideology. They must not seek inclusion in a program that requires them to compromise their faith. They must separate themselves from the world and build Catholic institutions that are faithful to the divine law, regardless of the cost.
Conclusion: The Kingship of Christ or the Triumph of the Antichrist
The case of St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy is not merely a legal dispute over preschool funding. It is a symptom of the fundamental crisis of the modern world: the rejection of Christ the King and the elevation of the state to the position of God. Colorado’s exclusion of Catholic preschools from public benefits because they refuse to affirm sodomitic ideology is a direct consequence of the state’s apostasy from the Catholic faith.
The post-conciliar Church, having embraced the errors of Dignitatis Humanae and the separation of Church and state, has no answer to this persecution. It can only file lawsuits and hope that the secular courts will grant it temporary relief. But the courts of this world are not the courts of Christ. The true Catholic response is not to seek justice from the state but to proclaim the kingship of Christ and to build a Catholic society that is independent of the state and faithful to the divine law.
As Pius XI declared: “The annual celebration of this solemnity will also remind states that not only private individuals, but also rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” Colorado has refused this duty. It has chosen the Antichrist over Christ. It has chosen sodomy over the natural law. It has chosen the state over God. The faithful must respond not with lawsuits but with faith, courage, and supernatural resistance. They must build Catholic schools, Catholic families, and a Catholic society that is faithful to Christ the King, regardless of the cost. For “he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13).
Source:
Supreme Court to Hear Colorado Catholic Preschools’ Religious Freedom Suit (ncregister.com)
Date: 20.04.2026