PROVIDENCE — On Sept. 1, members of Hispanic Protestant congregations around Rhode Island will gather on the State House lawn to pray for an end to poverty and crime.

This is the second time the group of churches will hold its annual day of prayer — an event that drew an estimated 800 people last year — on the grounds of the seat of state government. It could be the last time.

Marco Schiappa, associate director for facilities management with the Department of Administration, told the State Properties Committee yesterday morning that a state policy — apparently both longstanding and long ignored — prohibits use of the State House or its grounds for religious purposes.

“We’ve either got to change the procedures, or we’ve got to stick to the procedures,” he told the committee.

Schiappa said he discovered the policy after assuming his current job six months ago. Because policy has conflicted with practice for so long, Schiappa recommended that the committee approve the Sept. 1 day of prayer, but offered this warning: “We want to make it clear that this may not be something that will be allowed in the future.”

If the state began enforcing the policy, it would affect several regular State House events, including a Catholic group’s annual recitation of the rosary to pray for an end to legalized abortion, and the menorah lighting ceremony a Jewish group holds each Hanukkah.

Upon learning of the policy yesterday, religious leaders and the American Civil Liberties Union decried it as blatantly unconstitutional. By the end of the day, Schiappa said he had asked lawyers whether changing it to allow religious events would cause any legal problems in light of the constitutional prohibition on establishment of religion. If not, Schiappa said, he expected the policy would be changed, subject to approval by Department of Administration Director Beverly Najarian.

Also, by the end of the day, Governor Carcieri vowed to throw his weight behind amending the policy, as opposed to enforcing it as currently written. The governor “believes that the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion,” said his spokesman, Jeff Neal. “We will go through a process at the Department of Administration through which we seek to guarantee people’s rights to free speech while also recognizing the nature of this facility as a place of business.”

The policy in question — a copy of which Schiappa provided to The Journal yesterday — cautions, “The State House is a seat of government and…governmental functions take priority.” It goes on to say “events and fundraisers involving state and local government and nonprofit groups representing the arts, education, health and other causes” are permitted, but that “religious functions or functions held by religious groups” are not.

As long as events with a religious theme are held to the same standard as other events — namely, that they “are not detrimental to the upkeep of the property or to the important public business being done here” — Neal said the governor believes they should, and must, be allowed.

Schiappa said he did not know how long the policy had been in place. He said he could not produce evidence of anyone being denied permission on that basis, but that he had verbally rejected one event applicant.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence declined to take a strong stance against the policy. “The state has every right to regulate the use of their buildings and their grounds,” diocese spokesman Michael Guilfoyle said.

However, the organizers of the annual rosary prayer service registered vehement opposition.

“With freedom of expression of our faith, we do no harm, only good, for our society,” said David O’Connell, director of the Mother of Life Center, which offers free pregnancy counseling from a Catholic, antiabortion perspective. “It would be wrong and improper for the state to take away that right.”

Allowing one religious group to use the State House does not amount to establishment or even encouragement of that particular tradition, as long as other groups’ requests receive equal treatment, said Stephen Silberfarb, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island. Equal access — the issue in this case — is “a completely different concept” from separation of church and state, he said.

Silberfarb said he would be in touch with the Department of Administration to encourage them to change the policy.

Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU’s Rhode Island chapter, called the policy “unconstitutional to the nth degree” and said his group “would be prepared to sue in a minute” if the state began enforcing it.

Brown said the State House was explicitly opened to demonstrations with a religious theme after a 1974 lawsuit over the state’s rejection of a group’s request to hold a prayer service in the rotunda to condemn cuts to the state’s welfare program by Gov. Philip W. Noel.

“In light of that history,” Brown said, “to see a policy that explicitly prohibits what a federal court said was constitutionally required is pretty shocking.”

The Rev. Eliseo Nogueras — president of the Hispanic Ministerial Association of Rhode Island, which organized the Sept. 1 day of prayer — said he was surprised to learn of the policy yesterday.

“Imagine Roger Williams, the guy who left Massachusetts to come to Rhode Island because of religious persecution, being alive and hearing something like that,” said Nogueras, who is pastor of the House of Prayer Gethsemane in Central Falls. “I would say it goes against the principles of why Rhode Island was founded.”

egudrais@projo.com