O’Connell v. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Supporting the Church’s charitable outreach around the world 

USCCB is an organization of senior religious leaders of the Catholic Church serving in the United States and U.S. Virgin Islands. For over 100 years, USCCB and its predecessor organizations have helped unify, promote, and carry out Catholic ministries in the United States and abroad, including to the elderly, poor, and marginalized communities. 

USCCB helps parishes communicate to their parishioners about a millennium-old annual Vatican collection called Peter’s Pence, which supports the Holy See’s needs and helps the Pope provide relief to marginalized people and Catholic communities. This annual offering is named after the original Pope, Saint Peter. Peter’s Pence, though, is directly run by the Vatican and local diocese participate as a matter of Catholic church law (known as “canon law”). USCCB does not collect the Peter’s Pence offering or control how the Vatican uses this offering from the faithful. 

Entangling courts in religious offerings 

In 2020, a parishioner at a Catholic parish in Rhode Island filed a class action lawsuit against USCCB over the Peter’s Pence collection. The parishioner claims he was misled during a Sunday Mass about how the Church would use his Peter’s Pence offerings. He provided no evidence of who spoke from the pulpit, what was said, on what date he heard it, or the amount he decided to offer. But now the plaintiff argues that federal courts should sift through sermons nationwide to see what was said from the pulpit about Peter’s Pence, entangle civil juries in internal church information about how the Pope spent offerings sent to the Vatican to support Peter’s Pence, and require the Church to turn over all communications between USCCB, dioceses, and the Vatican related to the offering. No court has ever accepted such an intrusive request. 

Protecting churches spiritual decisions about how to use offerings   

Thus, USCCB asked a federal court to dismiss the case, arguing that courts have no business second-guessing the Church’s religious communications and decisions about the use of offerings. USCCB also pointed out that the parishioner’s claims failed at every step, as he did not provide the basic legal information required in cases like his. But in 2023, the lower court refused to dismiss O’Connell’s case and set the case on track to intrusive civil proceedings into internal church affairs.  

In 2024, Becket stepped in to represent USCCB at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The First Amendment ensures churches can decide how to spend offerings, as well as how the Church preaches about such offerings from the pulpit—all without government interference.  

Becket is urging the Court to dismiss the lawsuit and protect the Church’s ability to preach to the faithful about voluntary religious offerings. Becket explains that allowing the case to go forward would threaten virtually every faith tradition in the nation with class action lawsuits whenever members are unhappy about how the church explained or spent their offerings. If a Catholic can claw back a religious offering he voluntarily gave to the Pope, every offering collection and decision made by a house of worship, and every decision made by a faith-based charity, is in jeopardy. 

Importance to Religious Liberty: 

• Religious Communities— Churches and religious organizations have a right to live, teach, and govern in accordance with the tenets of their faith. When the government interferes in church services and controls sermons from the pulpit and offerings in the pews, the separation of church and state is threatened. The First Amendment ensures a church’s right to autonomy from judicial entanglements.