Based in West Virginia, the college would teach construction trades like plumbing, carpentry and electricity works.
By Catholics for Catholics
A lawsuit that strives to block West Virginia from presenting a Catholic trade college with a $5 million grant, will advance after a judge rejected the college’s motion for a dismissal last week.
Filed by the West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the American Humanist Association (AHA), the lawsuit is asking a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge to block the grant awarded to St. Joseph the Worker College, according to Catholic News Agency.
Based in Steubenville, Ohio, the College of St. Joseph the Worker teaches trades associated with construction like plumbing, carpentry, electrical and HVAC, merged with a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies. The college aims to use the grant money to form a nonprofit construction company in West Virginia and increase its job training and education programs into the state.
The ACLU argues in its lawsuit that taxpayer money should not be used to support a grant to a religiously affiliated college. The lawsuit was filed against the West Virginia Water Development Authority (WVDA), which is the government body that approved the grant for economic development purposes. The college is not a defendant in the lawsuit, according to CNA.
“Our case challenging a $5 million grant in water development funds to a ‘radically Catholic’ school in Ohio can move forward,” the West Virginia ACLU announced in a statement posted on Bluesky.
“Thousands in West Virginia lack clean water,” the statement read. “Forcing them to fund this school’s religious mission with money meant for infrastructure is wholly inappropriate.”
According to CNA, the nonprofit construction company and the training programs the college wants to create would be situated in Weirton, West Virginia, which was once a booming steel town. The city is located in the northern tip of the state and borders Ohio, where the college is mainly based.
The projected construction company would employ students and focus on revitalization projects for sites of historical or cultural significance that for-profit companies would likely pass on.
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