Catholic Answers Suing IRS
In an announcement posted on its website, Catholic Answers is appealing for support for its lawsuit against the IRS.
The suit, filed in April, is a response to an IRS ruling that Catholic Answers president Karl Keating violated tax law in 2004 by commenting in an e-letter in 2004 that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry shouldn’t be receiving Communion because of his support for abortion.
Keating calls the IRS’s position, that this comment represented an improper attempt to influence the outcome of the 2004 election, “preposterous.”
“Now, it’s important to note that at no time did I or anyone at Catholic Answers tell people whom to vote for or whom not to vote for,” Keating said. “We merely stated our view that pro-abortion Catholic politicians should not be allowed to receive Holy Communion.”
According to Catholic Answers, the IRS action was triggered by a complaint filed against its Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics, which highlights five “non-negotiable” moral issues for Catholics — abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and homosexual “marriage.
The complaint was filed by the pro-abortion lobby group “Catholics for a Free Choice,” which has been denounced by the U.S. bishops for its false claim to be an authentically Catholic organization.
According to Catholic Answers, the IRS concluded there was no problem with the voter guide itself but that Keating’s comment about Kerry violated tax law.
More from Catholic Answers on this:
You see, we’re in this fight not only for Catholic Answers, but for
all
religious organizations—and especially for
the Catholic Church
in America.
The IRS intimidates organizations like ours all the time.
It especially threatens
churches
with taking away their tax-exempt status.
The IRS has a long record of making churches and religious organizations
think
they’re not allowed to say anything about political candidates and moral issues — in any manner whatsoever.
It makes you
think
that if you do, you’ll
lose
your tax-exempt status.
Thus, the IRS is effectively holding every non-profit organization in America hostage.
