Archbishop Golka: Colorado Punishes Catholic Schools
Archdiocesan preschool enrollment has fallen 20 percent since 2023, with closures hitting schools that served low-income families.
Archbishop James R. Golka of Denver has called the faithful to prayer as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether Colorado may keep Catholic preschools out of the state's Universal Preschool Program for holding to Church teaching on sexuality and gender identity.
In an opinion piece published this week, the archbishop said Colorado is punishing religious ministry. The program, which began in 2023, provides 15 hours of free preschool each week, a benefit valued at roughly $6,300 per child per year. Catholic schools require participating families to uphold the teachings of the Church—an expectation state officials treat as a violation of nondiscrimination rules covering sexual orientation and gender identity.
A Steep Cost for Families and Parishes
The effect on Catholic education in the archdiocese has been immediate. Enrollment in Archdiocesan preschools has fallen 20 percent since the program's launch. Closures have followed, including Wellspring Catholic Academy, a school that served minority and low-income families for whom the free hours would have meant the most.
The Archdiocese of Denver and two parishes filed suit in 2023, challenging the exclusion. Lower courts sided with the state. The schools are represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which argues that a generally available public benefit cannot be denied to religious providers simply because they operate according to their faith. The case tests religious-liberty precedents and carries consequences for faith-based schools far beyond Colorado.
Education for This Life and the Next
Archbishop Golka underscored that Catholic schools exist to form children in the virtues required for life in society and for eternal life. To shut them out of a preschool program because they will not set aside the Church's understanding of the human person, he wrote, is to penalize a religious mission rather than to administer a neutral social service.
The justices' ruling will decide whether Catholic families in Colorado may obtain equal support for early education without surrendering the convictions that define their schools. The archbishop asked Catholics to pray for the Court, for the educators and parents under pressure, and for the children whose formation hangs in the balance.