This article reports that Puerto Rico’s Secretary of the Treasury, Juan Zaragoza, announced that his agency will soon begin an audit of religious entities in an effort to identify non-profit organizations that are wrongfully avoiding payment of taxes. The investigation’s inclusion of religious organizations is part of the third phase of a pilot program that began last year with an audit of more than 40 non-profit organizations.
Survey Finds a Majority Agree with the Little Sisters of the Poor’s Fight Against the HHS Mandate
On April 19, 2016, the Catholic News Agency reported on the results of a new Marist Poll survey relating to the Little Sisters of the Poor’s pending litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court. The article begins as follows:
A new survey says most Americans think the Obama administration’s federal contraception mandate is unfair to the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious groups defending themselves before the U.S. Supreme Court.
About 53 percent of Americans said the process required by the government is “unfair,” while only 32 percent did not, according to a new Marist Poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus.
The federal government has exempted many other organizations’ employee health care plans from a requirement to provide contraception and drugs that can produce abortions. But it has no exemption for the Little Sisters of the Poor, who help run houses to care for the elderly poor.
The full text of the article appears here.