Conservative groups flout laws on tax-exemption.

CONSERVATIVE CATHOLIC groups, as expected, sought to play a significant role in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election. In several instances, these groups violated both the letter and the spirit of the law governing tax-exempt entities, whereby organizations and religious institutions agree to neither explicitly nor implicitly endorse or oppose any specific candidate for elected office.

CFFC filed several complaints with the IRS about the abuse of tax-exempt status, including one against Operation Rescue West in July for running an ad in the Wanderer, an ultra-conservative national Catholic weekly, asking readers to make a contribution to help "defeat [John Kerry] in November and enable President Bush to appoint a pro-life Supreme Court Justice to finally overturn Roe v. Wade." In May, Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a complaint against Bishop Michael Sheridan of the Colorado Springs diocese who said he would deny communion to both prochoice Catholic politicians and Catholics who vote for candidates who are prochoice.

In September and October, CFFC filed other complaints, against Catholic Answers, Inc. for an ad in regional editions of USA Today calling on Catholics to "eliminate from consideration candidates" who are "wrong" on what it called the "non-negotiable" issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and euthanasia. (Karl Keating, president of Catholic Answers, had previously said that Sen. Kerry "is wrong on all those issues"); against the Culture of Life Foundation for circulating an email labeling Sen. Kerry as a "bad Catholic" and explaining why faithful Catholics may not vote for "pro-abortion politicians;" and against Priests for Life, which asserted on its website that "any candidate who says abortion should be kept legal disqualifies him/herself from public service." All these statements contravene IRS guidelines on how tax-exempt organizations may conduct themselves.