A local religious organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center deems a hate group runs one of more than 800 educational programs approved for New Hampshire's school voucher program.
Among the many debated facets of the state's Education Freedom Accounts program is that it allows families to use public dollars for religious schools. But while Richmond's Saint Benedict Center refers to itself as a Catholic organization — including on documents that allow it to secure property tax exemptions — the Diocese of Manchester says this is false.
N.H. Sen. Donovan Fenton, a Keene Democrat, says the school's inclusion in the EFA program reflects the program's lack of guardrails.
“It’s really scary where this EFA money is going and who it’s going to and who's taking advantage of it,” he said. “The public should be furious and aware … we’re hemorrhaging money from the state for this program, for people who, you know, are teaching these religious issues that a lot of people don't agree with or are labeled a hate group.”
Passed in 2021 and poised for expansion this year, the Education Freedom Accounts program allows families of lower income to spend state funds on private-school tuition, homeschooling costs and other expenses.
Supporters assert the program offers children with needs not met in public schools alternative choices, while opponents say it drains financial support for public schools.
As of October, the N.H. Department of Education was projecting the state would spend $22.1 million for the EFA program in the 2023–24 school year.
Both NHDOE and the N.H. Children's Scholarship Fund, which administers the EFA program, list the Immaculate Heart of Mary School that the Saint Benedict Center runs as an "approved provider."
Article continues after...
Your Daily Puzzles
According to an informational booklet for providers, requirements include complying with background checks and anti-discrimination laws, and providing documentation of processes used to ensure a safe learning environment. It adds that besides tuition, families can use EFA funds for items including uniforms, textbooks and computer hardware.
Of a statewide daily average of 4,663 residents using the EFA program for the 2023-24 school year, about 26 lived in Richmond, per a NHDOE fact sheet that doesn't specify what schools they attended.
Brother André Marie Villarrubia, the prior of the Saint Benedict Center who was temporarily the Immaculate Heart of Mary School's headmaster, said about 50 students attend in grades kindergarten through 12. He confirmed some families utilize the EFA program.
He said he couldn't remember how much the school's tuition is, but emphasized the N.H. Children's Scholarship Fund combines private donations and state funds that are then sent to parents, and denied the school receives taxpayer funds.
In an emailed response to a request for comment on the Richmond school's inclusion in the EFA program, the N.H. Department of Education said the approval process for nonpublic schools to operate in New Hampshire is outlined in the state's education rules.
"[The Immaculate Heart of Mary School] was approved in 1990 and most recently renewed in 2022 after meeting the requirements as outlined in Ed 400," the department wrote.
Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut and the N.H. Children’s Scholarship Fund did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday and Wednesday.
Saint Benedict Center members — who call themselves the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary — trace the group's founding to Father Leonard Feeney, a Boston preacher who was quoted at Boston Common by The Harvard Crimson in 1951 using antisemitic language and a well-worn Jewish conspiracy trope, while also criticizing Protestants.
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as “radical traditionalist Catholics” and has placed them on its online "hate map."
The SPLC states on its website that radical traditional Catholic groups "pillory Jews as 'the perpetual enemy of Christ,' " and reject the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, which made many changes to the Church. However, the SPLC draws a distinction between what it classifies as "radical" groups and traditionalist Catholic groups, which are also critical of the Vatican but which the SPLC does not classify as hate groups.
Other groups in the state on the SPLC's map are Patriot Front, a white nationalist group; the American Nazi Party; and several conservative groups SPLC labels as anti-government.
Villarrubia rejected the antisemitic characterizations of Feeney and said The Harvard Crimson had "an ax to grind."
A 2005 post on the Saint Benedict Center’s website describes that same time in the 1950s as when the “world and the Church treated us like a colony of lepers” and said, “enemies have attempted to smear Father Feeney’s memory and work.”
Villarrubia also objected to the SPLC and its characterization of the Saint Benedict Center.
“The SPLC is a bunco scheme that specializes in driving hysteria … to try to get money from liberal donors whom they scare,” he said. “…They make up boogeymen.”
In addition to the expected courses, Villarrubia says students of the Immaculate Heart of Mary School take “classical liberal arts” classes and receive religious instruction.
However, both the center and its school "are not a Catholic organization (de facto or otherwise,) nor can they, or should they, present themselves in such a way," according to the Diocese of Manchester's website.
The group says on its website it believes salvation is available only through the Catholic Church, a principle known as “extra ecclesiam nulla salus.” The principle is no longer followed by the Church, and the Vatican has declared it “no longer open to dialogue or debate," the diocese explains on its website.
Via precepts of prohibition in 2019, the Very Rev. Georges de Laire, the Manchester diocese official responsible for applying church law in New Hampshire, ordered the Saint Benedict Center and Immaculate Heart of Mary School to amend their Articles of Agreement with the N.H. Secretary of State and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to not present themselves as Catholic organizations.
Yet the Secretary of State’s Office reported no amended articles for either the center or school in response to a right-to-know request, and the office's online business directory showed a 2020 nonprofit report from the center listing itself as a Roman Catholic organization.
Additionally, IRS filings from 2020 to 2023 in a public database operated by ProPublica show the Immaculate Heart of Mary School continuing to state its purpose as Catholic education.
Both the center and school are listed in an IRS database as tax-exempt, and Richmond's tax card database shows that the center's roughly 22 acres of land on Fay Martin Road — assessed at $3.2 million in January 2024 — was listed as tax-exempt.
Villarrubia said the group was not holding Mass at its center, as required by the diocese, but said an appeal of the precepts is pending with the diocese and therefore declined to comment on the other rules.
The Vatican rejected an appeal by the Saint Benedict Center in 2021, according to The Union Leader.
The diocese's order in 2019 also prohibits the congregation and its organizations from raising money and funds in the name of any Catholic entity and selling items that address Catholic teachings.
However, the Saint Benedict Center operates an extensive store on its website, with section titles including “Catholic Erudition,” “Current Issues in the Church” and “Catholic America.”
Tara Bishop, the communications director for the Diocese of Manchester, and the Very Rev. de Laire declined to comment. In an email, de Laire said all available information was on the diocese’s website.
