Opinion ID: 852981
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Ex Corde Ecclesiae

Text: The Diocese defendants successfully argued to the trial court and Court of Appeals that they lacked jurisdiction because secular review of Brazauskas' claims would constitute excessive entanglement and violate the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which is applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Brazauskas, 755 N.E.2d at 207-08. [4] They likewise urge us to hold that Ex Corde Ecclesiae forecloses court inquiry because under the First Amendment courts may neither interpret such documents nor penalize the practice of religion in fulfillment of the provisions of such a document. (Appellees' Br. at 40.) This argument is somewhat circular. We cannot simply accept that Ex Corde Ecclesiae governed the alleged action without some review of the document. See Draskovich v. Pasalich, 151 Ind.App. 397, 401, 280 N.E.2d 69, 72 (1972) (Notwithstanding the limitations imposed on the civil courts ... the civil courts can (and indeed must in some cases) look at ecclesiastical documents and related evidence concerning religious rites, doctrines, polity and practices for the limited purpose of determining the nature of the church organization.) We also cannot accept without question an assertion that the courts may not review the legality of an action because that action was pursuant to a directive from higher church authority. See Employment Div. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 110 S.Ct. 1595, 108 L.Ed.2d 876 (1990). In Smith, the plaintiffs ingested peyote during a sacramental ceremony of their Native American Church. Id. at 874, 110 S.Ct. 1595. They were consequently fired from their jobs at a drug rehabilitation organization and denied unemployment benefits. Id. The Supreme Court upheld the denial of benefits, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not exempt religiously motivated action from neutral laws of general applicability. Id. at 881-82, 890, 110 S.Ct. 1595. Therefore, under Smith, church directives such as Ex Corde Ecclesiae are not the end of the story, because they do not automatically insulate the faithful from such neutral laws of general applicability as Indiana's blacklisting statute. This is not to say that Ex Corde Ecclesiae is wholly irrelevant to this case. It establishes that higher church authority (namely, the Pope) has directed Catholic universities such as Notre Dame and local Catholic diocese officials to cooperate closely, communicate, and develop an environment of mutual trust. Bishop D'Arcy and other diocesan personnel would therefore be acting in accordance with ecclesiastical directive in keeping Father Malloy apprised of diocesan developments, including pending lawsuits, and in coordinating with him on administrative and policy matters.