The Massachusetts Legislature continues with its efforts to put the Church ever more firmly under its thumb by requiring all churches and religious groups to be just like any other non-profit and file financial disclosure statements that would put it under the scrutiny of the attorney general.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Tom Reilly isn’t content to wait for the law to pass and is demanding to know why Boston Catholic Television does not file detailed annual reports.
BCTV’s president, Archbishop Sean O’Malley, responds, Because the law exempts “any property held for any religious purpose.” Hey, Reilly, it’s called the First Amendment and until you get your law passed, it still applies to BCTV. Reilly can’t wait to get his hands on BCTV’s financial statements because he thinks that there’s lots of money squirreled away there and then he can hold the statements up in front of news cameras and proclaim that the big bad Church is once again screwing parishioners by closing parishes while the archdiocese has all this money at its disposal.
