HARRISBURG — A state appeals court has sided with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare in a dispute over its authority to regulate religious child-care facilities, a battle with roots in the 1960s. Commonwealth Court last week upheld the department's 1997 order shutting down St. Elizabeth's Child Care Center near Allentown. The judges said the Catholic day care's case was too short on specifics and that it did not, as required, establish that regulations would interfere with its free exercise of religion.

"St. Elizabeth's asserts that it would be difficult and intrusive to have government bureaucrats evaluate its religious ministries under standards that are not part of church teaching or are at variance with it," wrote Judge Rochelle S. Friedman.

"However, St. Elizabeth's does not identify the specific impact of any particular regulation; instead, its prior restraint argument consists of vague and speculative assertions," she wrote.

St. Elizabeth's lawyer, Philip Murren, said Thursday he intends to seek rehearing in Commonwealth Court or appeal to the state Supreme Court.

"If separation of church and state means anything, it means the church should not have to go to the state and get permission to engage in one of its prime ministries," he said. Public Welfare Secretary Harriet Dichter said the ruling will help the agency ensure children are safe in child-care settings.

"This decision upholds our belief that every facility — regardless of affiliation — should be held to the same quality standards to protect the health, safety and development of our children," Dichter said Thursday.

In January 1997, welfare inspectors discovered 20 children were in a facility that lacked the requisite DPW certificate of compliance and issued a cease-and-desist order.

Murren said the state can visit, inspect and enforce regulations for health and safety, but should not be dictating what should be taught or by whom. He said the issue has been in dispute since the state overhauled the Public Welfare Code in 1968.

"They claim the authority to review everything that goes on in the preschool ministry and determine if it's appropriate to what its secular standards of developing social and emotional development would be," Murren said. "It's always been held to be constitutionally inappropriate to exercise prior restraint over freedom of speech. The same should apply to freedom of religion."

In a concurring opinion, Judge Keith B. Quigley said St. Elizabeth's had raised significant issues of concern, including how rules about fostering children's self-esteem and social competence — or minimum educational requirements for workers — will affect the center's religious mission.