Michigan township can’t ban Catholic group’s Stations of the Cross, court rules
A federal appeals court panel has unanimously ruled in favor of a Catholic group that said a local government in Michigan violated federal religious freedom law when it blocked the use of the group’s 40-acre property for a Stations of the Cross trail.
“Now this 40-acre rural property can be used again for religious worship and religious expression. We’re obviously very pleased by that,” Robert Muise, senior counsel and co-founder of the American Freedom Law Center, told CNA Sept. 12.
“When you’re not being allowed to use your land for religious worship to display religious symbols, that obviously impacts the right to religious freedom,” he said.
Muise was on the legal team representing the plaintiff in the case, Catholic Healthcare International (CHI). The Missouri-based group promotes Christian health care modeled on the example of the 20th-century Italian St. Pio of Pietrelcina, better know as Padre Pio.
In 2020 the organization received a 40-acre wooded parcel in Genoa Township in southeast Michigan as a gift from the Diocese of Lansing. CHI planned to create a prayer trail with Stations of the Cross, a Catholic devotion that meditates on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, as well as an altar and mural placed in an outdoor grotto formed by the property’s trees.
Genoa Township said the prayer path project was the equivalent of a church building and required a special use permit, the Associated Press reported. The Catholic group protested the initial demand for a permit and proceeded to construct religious displays. It also spent thousands of dollars to submit plans for an actual church building, a eucharistic adoration chapel already part of its long-term plans for the site. This too was rejected on grounds that the plan violated zoning restrictions and other rules for property use, including traffic and noise rules.
The township then forced CHI to remove any religious displays from its property. It also banned organized gatherings at the property due to an expired driveway permit.
