A Ukrainian Catholic church claims Collier’s rejection of a proposed chapel amounts to religious discrimination under the First Amendment.
Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church is seeking a preliminary injunction in a 60-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Pittsburgh.
The lawsuit argues the planned 13,000-square-foot chapel was subject to scrutiny beyond what township officials apply to secular structures, including a nearby carpenters union campus more than seven times the size.
“We’re not asking for anything more than our neighbors are accorded,” said Father Jason Charron, who leads the congregation from its main building in Carnegie.
The proposed chapel would sit next to the church’s cemetery along Ridge Road in Collier, about six miles southwest of Pittsburgh, and serve as a space for funeral services and special gatherings.
It would house a sanctuary, social hall, gift shop and retreat center with 18 guest rooms, attracting “followers from around the world,” according to the lawsuit.
Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church is being represented by the Texas-based First Liberty Institute and Harrisburg-based Independence Law Center, a pair of powerful religious liberty legal groups.
The current Board of Commissioners — consisting of Mary Ann Cupples-Wisniowski, Tim Downey Jr., Dawnlee Vaughn, Julie Murphy and Gabriel Benvenuti — is named in the lawsuit as well as former commissioners Wayne Chiurazzi and Kari Suter.
Township Manager George Macino declined to comment.
The township’s legal counsel, Brian Gabriel, did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
Collier officials and nearby residents had raised concerns about noise from the church bell, the height of the bell tower and traffic impacts, the lawsuit states. The project was denied by the commissioners in September 2024.
When the church submitted a scaled-down proposal later that year, the planning commission gave its approval — with several conditions.
For one, the church could ring its bell only for memorial services and, even then, for no more than 3½ minutes. It would also have to cap its chapel at 5,000 square feet.
Under that offer, the church says it would not be able to ring its bells to commemorate the 3 p.m. Hour of Mercy, celebrate holidays or remind followers to pray — essential elements of the Ukrainian Catholic faith.
The complaint also argues the township is in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a 2000 federal law protecting religious organizations from zoning discrimination, because it does not permit churches without conditional use approval.
Yet, the township allows the construction of commercial offices, motels, car washes and other structures, providing further proof of unequal treatment, according to the lawsuit.
“The township would welcome an amusement park on the property, but the thing the First Amendment guarantees, you have to go to the township and say, mother may I please?’” said Jeremy Dys, senior counsel to the First Liberty Institute. “That is not consistent with the preference the First Amendment places on religion.”
