CHEYENNE - Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Wednesday he is satisfied with the constitutionality of the state's payments to a private religious corporation that has granted money to churches, anti-abortion clinics and other religious organizations.

The Associated Press reported this week that the Wyoming Department of Family Services has paid tens of thousands of dollars to Faith Initiatives of Wyoming. The company, in turn, has pooled the state funds with federal money to make grants to faith-based and community organizations.

Among the payments the company has made since last spring have been a $10,000 grant to a Casper church for fire suppression improvements at its community center and $2,500 computer systems for both an anti-abortion ministry and a prison ministry with the motto "all for the cause of Christ."

The Wyoming Constitution states, "No money of the state shall ever be given or appropriated to any sectarian or religious society or institution."

At his Wednesday news conference, Freudenthal said of the state payments to Faith Initiatives, "I'm actually fairly comfortable with what we're doing."

Freudenthal said the constitutional language doesn't mean that the state can never contract with religious institutions for services. Rather, he said it requires that the state get something of value in exchange for any payments to religious groups.

"I think that one of the problems is that people can say, 'Well, the money's fungible, we don't know what service your dollar went for,"' Freudenthal said. "Well, actually we do; we know what services we contracted for."

The state's current $80,000 contract with Faith Initiatives of Wyoming calls for the company to help existing faith-based and community organizations provide community services in such areas as "strengthening families" and "at-risk youth."