WHITE HOUSE PLEDGES TO BACK CATHOLIC GROUP: From the Portland Press Herald

President Bush's top adviser on faith-based programs assured Catholic Charities Maine Thursday that the White House is ready to battle local government when it comes to funding religious groups. Catholic Charities, the social-service arm of the Roman Catholic Church and one of Maine's largest such organizations, is barred from receiving certain federal funds from the city of Portland unless it provides some benefits to same-sex or unmarried partners of employees.

Catholic Charities, after a court battle with the city, has said that it can now apply for the grants without compromising church doctrine opposing gay partnerships and premarital sex.

A faith-based initiative from the Bush administration, however, will see to it that religious groups never feel vulnerable in the federal grant-making process, said Jim Towey, director of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

"Sometimes you see local governments that bully faith-based organizations and basically tell them that they have to compromise their religious beliefs and tenets if they want to partner with government," Towey said in an interview at Catholic Charities' Falmouth offices.

"That may be their prerogative when it's state and local money," he said, "but when it's federal money that raises a whole different set of issues."

"Equal treatment" principles, propelled by executive orders, will apply to 10 federal agencies including the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD, whose funds were at the center of Catholic Charities' dispute, finalized its rules June 1 and is studying "what to do when local ordinances discriminate against faith-based organizations like they do here in Portland," Towey said.
Portland City Councilor James Cloutier is not concerned about the possibility of new federal rules.

"We don't have to be concerned about the fairness with which we treat religious and religiously sponsored organizations. That's because we have one rule that applies to everybody: You can't practice discrimination," said Cloutier, who was mayor when Catholic Charities sued the city in March 2003, charging religious discrimination.

A federal judge ruled in February that Portland's ordinance is constitutional but said it did not apply to Catholic Charities' health plan because it is covered by federal law.

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