Long Island mayor facing Grinch accusations for dinging church’s Christmas fundraiser

A Long Island mayor is facing accusations of being an anti-Christmas Grinch after he dinged a Catholic Church for hosting a holiday fundraiser. 

The Village of the Branch, in the Town of Smithtown, issued a citation to St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, threatening it with a fine of at least $350 for the “prohibited use” of its front parking lot to sell trees and other yuletide gear.

But lawyers for the 73-year-old congregation claimed village Mayor Mark Delaney holds a “personal vendetta” against the Suffolk County church — and unfairly singled it out.

“The Village must immediately abandon its discriminatory treatment of the Church and its religious fundraising activities,” the non-profit legal defense group First Liberty Institute wrote in a letter to Delaney on behalf of the church.

Ryan Gardner, an attorney with the public interest law firm, claimed Delaney was using “the petty tools of government to lash out against a church that he has a personal vendetta against.” 

“Why else would he be sending his code enforcement officers over there to cite the church for something that they’ve been doing for 25 years?” he told The Post.

Delaney denied a vendetta. 

“We never stopped the church from selling their Christmas trees,” he insisted in a phone interview. 

The village argues that the church is free to hawk whatever it pleases — but not in its front parking lot that is zoned as part of the “historical district,” where sales are prohibited.

Church officials will have to appear at a January 26 hearing to face the charges, according to the summons. 

The mayor said the Dec. 16 summons was only meant to “encourage conversation.” 

He insisted the village was “not pursuing any monetary fines – simply compliance in fairness to neighbors in the historic district.” But he admitted, “I cannot influence court action.”  

Gardner argued the “fundraising activities” regulation invoked by the village is unconstitutional and unfairly zeroes in on the church, over other non-profit organizations. 

He noted the regulation doesn’t even define what a fundraiser is, posing other legal concerns under a federal land-use statute that applies to religious institutions. 

“The Village’s actions impermissibly intrude upon the First Amendment’s guarantee of autonomy to the Church,” Gardner wrote in his Dec. 18 letter to the mayor.

“The Village must immediately abandon its discriminatory treatment of the Church and its religious fundraising activities,” or face possible legal repercussions, First Liberty’s letter said.

Delaney noted the church held its annual fundraiser — selling Christmas trees, wreaths and “grave blankets” used to decorate cemetery plots in winter — for more than 20 years in the area near its entrance that falls in the “residential district.” 

“We’re not clear why they chose to move the selling location” to the parking lot for this year’s event, which ended last weekend, he said.

The village leader said officials were “interested in learning in court” why the parish made that change, especially when a previous St. Patrick’s legal case against the village ended with the church having to move its annual carnival out of the parking lot. 

Gardner argued that regardless, the village mandate goes against federal law, which calls for equal treatment for charities, both secular and religious. 

Unfairly targeting religious groups can have financial consequences, the attorney pointed out. In July, the Village of Atlantic Beach in Nassau County forked over $950,000 to settle a dispute with Chabad Lubavitch of the Beaches over that group’s plan to open a center there.

Delaney told The Post, “I am not familiar with the First Liberty organization and will not be responding to their letter.”