They Wanted A Small Place To PRAY — Their Own Neighbors SUED

Hands clasped in prayer holding a rosary — Photo: Piya_kiewkamjeen / Shutterstock

A Catholic order in Kentucky that was told it could not build a small shrine to the Virgin Mary on its own church grounds will now take its case to the highest court in the country. Neighbors sued to stop the shrine, Kentucky judges sided with them, and the justices will decide whether that outcome puts a “substantial burden” on religion under federal law.

Story Snapshot

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Thursday, October 1, to hear the case of the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist of Park Hills, Kentucky.
The order wants to build a prayer grotto, a small cave-like shrine that holds a statue of Mary, beside its church.
Two neighbors sued, and Kentucky’s top court ruled against the order 6-1 in December 2025.
The justices will weigh a 2000 federal law written to protect houses of worship from local land rules.

A Small Shrine Sparks a Big Legal Fight

The Missionaries of St. John the Baptist run Our Lady of Lourdes church in Park Hills, a small city south of Cincinnati. In March 2021 they asked the city for permission to build a grotto on the church grounds. A grotto is a small shrine shaped like a natural cave. This one would honor the Virgin Mary’s appearance to St. Bernadette at Lourdes, France, in 1858, with statues of both, a patio and a walking path. The Park Hills Board of Adjustment said yes in April 2021.

The shrine would measure 16 feet by 39 feet, about 600 square feet. The order’s lawyers compare it to the size of a swimming pool. Two neighbors, Joel and Elizabeth Frederic, challenged the city’s approval in state court. They raised worries about traffic and parking if the shrine drew pilgrims, and they said the city board had no power to approve it under the town’s zoning rules. Zoning rules are the local laws that say what may be built on each piece of land.

State Courts Side With the Neighbors

A trial judge ruled for the church in June 2022. The Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in November 2023. The church has stood on its land for nearly 100 years, longer than the city’s 1974 zoning law has existed, so it is allowed to stay even though it does not fit the current rules for that neighborhood. The appeals court said adding the grotto would be an illegal expansion of that older use, and that the city board went beyond its authority.

The Kentucky Supreme Court agreed on December 18, 2025, by a vote of 6-1. It said the order could build a smaller grotto on its property, so the zoning rule was not a substantial burden on its faith. The order then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in. Its claim rests on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a law Congress passed in 2000. The law bars local governments from using land rules in ways that place a heavy burden on religious practice without a very strong reason.

What the Justices Will Decide

The question before the justices is whether stopping a religious group from building a religious structure on its own property counts as a “substantial burden” under that law. The order is represented by First Liberty Institute, a legal group that takes religious freedom cases. “Telling a church it can’t build a modest place for prayer and reflection on its own property is outrageous,” said Kelly Shackelford, the group’s president.

Ryan Gardner, a senior lawyer at First Liberty, said the case “has the potential to impact every single zoning law in this country.” The Frederics see it as far narrower. They told the court that judges around the country already apply much the same test in these disputes and reach different results because the facts differ. They also say the order had other places on its land where a grotto could go.

Why This Case Resonates Beyond One Church

For people of faith, the heart of the matter is simple. A religious community owns its land, wants to set aside a quiet corner of it for prayer, and was told no. Churches, synagogues and mosques in many towns have run into the same wall, where a local rule about lot lines or land use ends up deciding how a congregation may worship on its own ground.

The court has not set a date for arguments. When the justices rule, their answer will tell every town in America how much room it has to say no to a house of worship, and it will tell every congregation how much protection the 2000 law really gives.