Catholic Leaders Publicly Oppose Legalizing Cannabis

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]C[/dropcap]ardinal Blase J. Cupich and five other Illinois-based Roman Catholic bishops released a statement on Feb. 4, urging state lawmakers to vote against legalizing recreational cannabis.

The six bishops oversee six Catholic dioceses located in Illinois. Together, the six dioceses make up the Catholic Conference of Illinois. All six bishops felt strongly enough to speak out about the issue. “As lawmakers consider this issue, it is important to remember they are not only debating legalization of marijuana, but also commercialization of a drug into an industry the state will profit from,” the group of bishops said in a statement. “In seeking the common good, the state should protect its citizens.”

It’s difficult to define exactly how much church leaders can participate in politics, but according to the Internal Revenue Service, current law prohibits political campaign activity by charities and churches given the definition of a 501(c)(3) organization as one “which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.” How and when this law is applied is up for debate. It raises a lot of questions concerning the separation of church and state.

Conference Executive Director Bob Gilligan acknowledged the excitement surround legal cannabis, but predicts the “Green Rush” will slow down. “I think there was a lot of energy, and there’s still a lot of energy behind the efforts to legalize it, but that was in a campaign mode prior to November,” Gilligan told the Chicago Sun Times. “This was on some ballots where you saw a fairly large number of people supporting it. But now that it’s time for those people to figure out how to implement this in such a way that it does not harm the public, the momentum that you’re seeing is slowing down considerably.”

While Illinois legalized medical cannabis in 2013—the state’s program only allows patients with a limited number of ailments qualify. Several ongoing proposals could soon expand the number of qualifying illnesses. Recreational cannabis could become next. Legalizing recreational cannabis was one of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s key selling points during his 2018 campaign before assuming office.