EWTN News reports that St. John’s University in New York has filed a federal lawsuit against the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, alleging that mandatory collective bargaining with faculty unions constitutes an unconstitutional infringement on its religious liberty. The university, founded in 1870 and operating under a self-described “Catholic and Vincentian mission,” announced in February that it would no longer recognize two campus unions — the St. John’s University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors and the Faculty Association — both formed in 1970. The school’s spokesman claimed the decision would “allow [the school] the flexibility required to innovate while continuing to support our faculty and, most importantly, deliver on our promise to our students.” The lawsuit, filed June 1, argues that state oversight would “impermissibly entangle” the government in the university’s religious mission and prevent it from “freely govern[ing] itself in accordance with its Catholic and Vincentian mission and faith.” Union president Sophia Bell countered that the university president, Father Brian Shanley, is “violating New York state law and ignoring decades of St. John’s institutional practice and centuries of Catholic social teaching around respect for labor and workers.” This dispute, while framed in the language of constitutional law and labor relations, exposes the profound theological and institutional bankruptcy of post-conciliar Catholic institutions that invoke “mission” and “faith” while operating according to the logic of secular corporate governance.
The Illusion of “Catholic Mission” in a Conciliar Institution
The lawsuit’s central claim — that St. John’s University possesses a “fundamental constitutional right” to religious liberty that exempts it from state labor regulations — rests on a fundamentally secular legal framework. The university does not appeal to the divine constitution of the Church, to the rights of Christ the King over all institutions, or to the supernatural mission of Catholic education as defined by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Instead, it invokes the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, a document born of Enlightenment liberalism and religious indifferentism — precisely the errors condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (1864), which anathematized the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Proposition 80).
The university’s self-description as operating under a “Catholic and Vincentian mission” is, in the post-conciliar context, a hollow branding exercise. What does “Catholic mission” mean in an institution that has operated for over half a century under the auspices of the conciliar sect? The “Vincentian” charism of service to the poor, as understood by St. Vincent de Paul, was inseparable from the preaching of the Gospel, the administration of the sacraments, and the salvation of souls. In the post-conciliar paradigm, such language is routinely co-opted to signify nothing more than secular social justice activism, diversity initiatives, and corporate-style “innovation” — precisely the kind of naturalistic reduction of the Church’s mission that Pope Pius XI condemned in Quas Primas (1925), where he lamented that “the Christian religion began to be equated with other false religions and shamelessly placed in the same category.”
The Absence of Catholic Social Teaching on the Rights of Christ the King
The most glaring omission in the university’s legal argument is any reference to the social kingship of Christ — the foundational principle of Catholic political and institutional theology. Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, taught with absolute clarity: “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 encyclical further states: “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.”
A truly Catholic institution would not frame its dispute with the state in terms of “religious liberty” — a concept rooted in the liberal tradition and condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium — but rather in terms of the divine right of the Church to govern herself independently of secular authority. Pope Pius IX, in the Syllabus of Errors, condemned the proposition that “the Church is not a true and perfect society, entirely free — nor is she endowed with proper and perpetual rights of her own, conferred upon her by her Divine Founder; but it appertains to the civil power to define what are the rights of the Church, and the limits within which she may exercise those rights” (Proposition 19). He likewise condemned the claim that “the ecclesiastical power ought not to exercise its authority without the permission and assent of the civil government” (Proposition 20).
The university’s legal strategy implicitly accepts the secular state’s jurisdiction over its internal affairs, merely seeking an exemption from that jurisdiction on constitutional grounds. This is the logic of Dignitatis Humanae — the conciliar declaration on religious freedom that overturned centuries of Catholic teaching — not the logic of Immortale Dei or the Syllabus of Errors. A truly Catholic institution would assert that it is not subject to the state’s labor laws in matters touching its divine mission, not that it is exempt from them by constitutional privilege.
The Union President’s Appeal to “Catholic Social Teaching”
Sophia Bell, president of the St. John’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, accused Father Brian Shanley of “ignoring centuries of Catholic social teaching around respect for labor and workers.” This appeal is equally hollow. The “Catholic social teaching” invoked by Bell is almost certainly the post-conciliar version — the diluted, naturalistic, and often Marxist-inflected body of thought that emerged from the post-Vatican II era, exemplified by documents like Gaudium et Spes and the social encyclicals of the conciar “popes.” This is not the Catholic social teaching of Rerum Novarum (Leo XIII, 1891) or Quadragesimo Anno (Pius XI, 1931), which, while addressing the rights of workers, did so within the framework of the social kingship of Christ, the subsidiarity of institutions, and the primacy of the supernatural end of man.
In Quadragesimo Anno, Pius XI taught that the regulation of labor relations must be ordered toward the common good as defined by divine law, not by the autonomous demands of either capital or labor. The pre-conciliar Church’s teaching on labor was inseparable from her teaching on the dignity of the human person as created for the beatific vision — a dignity that transcends all material considerations. The post-conciliar reduction of “Catholic social teaching” to a set of progressive policy preferences — workers’ rights, social justice, diversity — is a betrayal of the integral Catholic vision.
The Deeper Problem: A Catholic Institution Without Catholic Substance
The fundamental issue exposed by this lawsuit is not whether St. John’s University should or should not bargain with unions. The fundamental issue is that St. John’s University is not, in any meaningful sense, a Catholic institution. It is a corporate entity operating under the legal fiction of Catholic identity, staffed by individuals who may or may not profess the Catholic faith, governed by a “president” who is a priest of uncertain doctrinal fidelity, and subject to the regulatory apparatus of a secular state. Its “Catholic and Vincentian mission” is a marketing slogan, not a lived reality.
The pre-conciliar Church understood that a Catholic university must be, first and foremost, an institution dedicated to the defense and propagation of Catholic truth. Pope Pius X, in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), condemned the proposition that “the Church is an enemy of the progress of natural and theological sciences” (Proposition 57) — but he also insisted that all teaching must be subject to the authority of the Magisterium and the unchanging deposit of faith. A Catholic university that operates according to secular corporate logic, that invokes “innovation” as its highest value, and that frames its disputes in the language of constitutional law rather than divine law is not a Catholic university. It is a secular institution wearing a Catholic mask.
The lawsuit’s reference to “excessive government entanglement with religion” is particularly ironic. The post-conciliar Church has been characterized by excessive entanglement with the world — with secular governments, with international organizations, with the ideologies of liberalism, modernism, and religious indifferentism. The “entanglement” that the university should fear is not with the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, but with the synagogue of Satan — the forces of modernism and apostasy that have occupied the structures of the Vatican and transformed the Church into what Pius IX described as a “masonic” operation against the faith of Christ.
The Silence on the True Nature of Catholic Education
Neither the university nor the union president addresses the true purpose of Catholic education as defined by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Catholic education exists to form souls for the service of God and the attainment of eternal salvation. It is not a commodity to be “delivered” to “students” as consumers, nor is it a platform for “innovation” in the secular sense. Pope Pius XI, in Divini Illius Magistri (1929), taught that “the whole work of education is, in a manner of speaking, a cooperation with God in the perfecting of the rational creature, and especially in preparing man for his supernatural end.” He further stated that “the school is not a mere adjunct to the family and the Church, but is a true and proper educational institution, with its own specific purpose and means.”
The reduction of Catholic education to a corporate enterprise — complete with “faculty employment terms,” “innovation,” and “flexibility” — is a symptom of the naturalization of the Church’s mission that has occurred since the conciliar revolution. When a Catholic university speaks the language of corporate management rather than the language of supernatural mission, it reveals that it has already capitulated to the secular order. The lawsuit is not a defense of Catholic identity; it is a legal maneuver by a secular institution seeking to preserve its autonomy from secular regulation — a paradox that perfectly encapsulates the absurdity of post-conciliar Catholicism.
Conclusion: The Bankruptcy of Post-Conciliar “Catholic” Institutions
The St. John’s University lawsuit is a microcosm of the broader crisis of post-conciliar Catholicism. An institution that calls itself Catholic invokes the First Amendment rather than the rights of Christ the King. A union president appeals to “Catholic social teaching” that has been stripped of its supernatural content. A “priest” who serves as university president makes decisions based on corporate logic rather than the dictates of faith. And the entire dispute is framed within the categories of secular law, secular labor relations, and secular institutional governance.
The pre-conciliar Church would have recognized this situation immediately: it is the inevitable result of the secularization of Catholic institutions that Pope Pius XI warned against in Quas Primas — the “plague that poisons human society,” namely “the secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors.” The remedy is not better legal strategies or more sophisticated appeals to “Catholic mission.” The remedy is a return to the integral Catholic faith — the faith that recognizes Christ as King of all nations, the Church as a perfect society independent of secular authority, and Catholic education as a supernatural enterprise ordered toward the salvation of souls. Until that return occurs, institutions like St. John’s University will continue to operate as secular entities with Catholic branding, and disputes like this one will continue to expose the hollowness of their claims.
Source:
New York Catholic university files federal lawsuit over forced collective bargaining rule (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 03.06.2026