Favorable
Committee: Senate Public Safety, Transportation, and Environment Subcommittee
HB 350 – D21A01.02
The Maryland Catholic Conference offers this testimony in SUPPORT the fiscal year 2026 allocation of $10 million to implement security measures at houses of worship at risk of hate crimes. The Catholic Conference is the public policy representative of the three (arch)dioceses serving Maryland, which together encompass over one million Marylanders. Statewide, their parishes, schools, hospitals and numerous charities combine to form our state’s second largest social service provider network, behind only our state government.
This fund provides vital resources to combat susceptibility to hate crimes. This funding is needed to protect places of worship, which are institutions central to Maryland communities. This funding serves a legitimate public interest in protecting citizens in places where they may be most vulnerable to attack.
In the most recent Maryland State Police Hate Bias Report, 951 hate bias incidents were reported to law enforcement agencies in the State, a nearly 104% increase from the prior year’s 467 reported incidents. Additionally, there were 316 religion-based incidents reported compared with 105 in the previous reporting year.
The Church denounces such activity and supports common sense measures to curb hate-motivated activity. Pope Francis has stated that the “problem of intolerance must be confronted in all its forms” and that where persons are “persecuted and marginalized because of [their] religious convictions or ethnic identity, the wellbeing of society as a whole is endangered and each one of us must feel affected.” (Pope Francis, Address to a Delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, 2013)
We applaud the effort by our state to protect its citizens in places where they are most vulnerable to hate crimes. It is our hope that the legislature will again provide much-needed funding for this initiative. We respectfully urge a favorable report for this program expenditure in the FY 2026 Operating Budget.