Deploying Catholic Social Teaching to Defend DEI Initiatives As Protected Religious Expression

“[A]s a nation, we have never sufficiently contended with the impact of overt racism. Nor have we spent the necessary time to examine where the racist attitudes of yesterday have become a permanent part of our perceptions, practices, and policies of today, or how they have been enshrined in our social, political, and economic structures.

“[W]e call on our religious education programs, Catholic schools, and Catholic publishing companies to develop curricula relating to racism and reconciliation.” 

- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love, a Pastoral Letter Against Racism” (2018)

“Do not obey in advance.” – Timothy Snyder

On February 27th, 2025, one Catholic university's website proudly proclaimed that “In the spirit of our mission, vision, and values, we honor and foster a sense of belonging, embracing the unique identities, backgrounds, and qualities of our students, faculty, and staff members. At the heart of our philosophy is a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” That afternoon I saved the webpage on my hard drive, knowing what was to come. The next morning when I refreshed the link, I was redirected to the University’s home page. Links about “Social Justice Resources” and the “Office of Identity and Inclusion” also redirected to the home page, while other links produced 404 errors.

The “Dear Colleague Letter” (DCL) released by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on February 14, 2025 is a sweeping interpretation of the 2023 Supreme Court decision Students for Fair Admissions at Harvard. In that decision, the Court ruled in favor of white and Asian student plaintiffs that Harvard had denied them admission on the basis of their race. The decision struck down decades of affirmative action policies at American universities. But, the DCL claimed, “the Supreme Court’s ruling applies more broadly,” and that the use of race as a criterion in any decision involving hiring, scholarships, programming, and  “all other aspects of student, academic and campus life” was now illegal. The memo alleged that, “under the banner of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (‘DEI’),” schools and universities “have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices.” The memo gave all educational institutions in the United States 14 days to bring their institutions into compliance with its interpretation of the law, under penalty of “potential loss of federal funding.”

Although Catholic institutions are private, at some colleges upwards of 40% of students receive some form of federal financial assistance via FAFSA, Pell Grants and other sources. Thus, after consultation with the Board of Trustees, leadership at peer institutions, and legal representation, the aforementioned University announced its intention to “comply with the law.” Compliance meant going beyond what the DCL explicitly requires and removing all references to diversity, equity, and inclusion from all forward-facing communications from the University. In doing so, the University insisted that the University "will not stray from its mission,” but that changes were needed in order to “allow our students to continue receiving student aid.”

Catholic institutions face an unenviable choice: 1) make a bold public defense of their institutional commitment to antiracism and social justice—and thereby risk making themselves a target of the administration and losing federal funding; or 2) keep their heads down, removing controversial language to avoid scrutiny, while preserving as much of their programming and values as possible—and thereby risk further enabling and emboldening of the Administration, while signaling to marginalized students that their safety is no longer an institutional priority.

There is another course open to Catholic institutions, however: namely, to claim that their commitment to anti-racism and inclusion stem from their Catholic identity and commitment to the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, and are thus protected by the First Amendment’s Free Exercise clause. In particular, Catholic institutions might draw meaningfully from the 2018 document “Open Wide Our Hearts,” a letter against racism that was authored by the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism and which passed by a vote of 241-3 with one abstention. The document frames racism as a “life issue” stemming from the Christian principle that all are made in the image of God. From the document:

“Racism occurs because a person ignores the fundamental truth that, because all humans share a common origin, they are all brothers and sisters, all equally made in the image of God.” (4)

“[T]o understand how racism works today, we must recognize that generations of African Americans were disadvantaged by slavery, wage theft, ‘Jim Crow’ laws, and by the systematic denial of access to numerous wealth-building opportunities reserved for others. […] While it is true that some individuals and families have thrived, significant numbers of African Americans are born into economic and social disparity.”  (14)

“Hispanics are the major target of immigration raids and mass deportation. In the past, U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent caught up in these raids have been deported. Today, many Hispanics are often assumed to be in this country illegally. These attitudes of cultural superiority, indifference, and racism need to be confronted; they are unworthy of any follower of Christ.” (16)

“Love compels each of us to resist racism courageously. It requires us to […] begin to change policies and structures that allow racism to persist. Overcoming racism is a demand of justice, but because Christian love transcends justice, the end of racism will mean that our community will bear fruit beyond simply the fair treatment of all.” (18)

This paper argues that one viable avenue for Catholic educational institutions in particular is to claim that their DEI programs are grounded in their institutional Catholic identity and are thus protected under the Free Exercise Clause. I offer a reading of the document in dialogue with Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, which surveys responses to various dictatorial regimes from the 20th century and distills twenty lessons for effective resistance. Snyder points out that too often people voluntarily cede power to fascist regimes, doing those regimes’ work for them out of a concern for self-preservation. 

For many decades Republicans have allied with conservative Catholics, claiming the religious freedom defense to justify conservative policies including opposition to abortion, the Affordable Care Act, and same-sex marriage. But, aside from issues surrounding gender and sexuality, the social teachings of the Catholic Magisterium are far from “conservative” in the U.S. American sense. I argue that progressives can and should lean in to Catholic Social Teaching and resist fascism by shouting the “Church’s best kept secret” from the rooftops.