MADISON, Wis. -- A national group is voicing concerns about University of Wisconsin student tuition fee money slated to fund a Catholic student organization.

The controversy centers on booklets that would be handed out on campus next year at the start of Lent, WISC-TV reported.

The University of Wisconsin Roman Catholic Foundation has been awarded nearly $150,000 of student segregated fees through the Associated Students of Madison. This decision was made after months of appeals over whether the student group could fund a religious organization.

The budget remains on the desk of UW Chancellor John Wiley for approval. Beth Czarnecki, office manager at St. Paul's Catholic Center and part of the UW Roman Catholic Foundation, said that school officials made several funding cuts to the foundation's program because they felt that they were religious and couldn't get money.

Earlier this week, the Madison-based Freedom from Religion Foundation requested the chancellor deny the funding because part of that budget would go to the booklets that they consider a worship activity.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said that they believe this could open the door for more student money from religious groups.

"We think its opening a constitutional can of worms and that there will be unending demands from campus ministries for students to fund their proselytizing events and that's all wrong at a secular institution," Gaylor said.

Czarnecki said that a Supreme Court case brought by a former UW law student in 2000 clears the way for the group to receive funds.

In the ruling, called "Southworth," the court decided that state-run schools can subsidize any campus groups with money from student-segregated fees, including religious groups, WISC-TV reported.

Czarnecki said that she doesn't feel the booklets constitute worship.

"It's a student decision, and they were given that right by Southworth that they could decide for this," Czarnecki said. "And it's a viewpoint neutral thing, and so they can't consider that it's a religious aspect."

The UW Roman Catholic Foundation is the first religious student organization in the history of the UW to get segregated fees and is also the least funded.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation said that if the funding is approved, it might consider a lawsuit.

However, the Catholic Foundation said that it hopes to not only get the approved funding, but to get as much as other groups. It's also one of the largest student organizations on campus.

The chancellor will begin to review the budgets on Thursday and must submit them to the UW Board of Regents by the beginning of April, WISC-TV reported.