REVOKE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S TAX-EXEMPT STATUS: Ellen MacNamara

Having rejected Governor Mitt Romney's request that he launch a desperate, last-ditch bid to thwart the implementation of the Supreme Judicial Court's gay marriage ruling, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly ought to turn his legal attention to revoking the tax-exempt status of the Catholic Church.

Spare Catholic Charities, the parochial schools, and the social service providers who truly embody the religious mission of the church, but pull the ticket on the corporate entity that would turn Holy Cross Cathedral into a precinct hall and the Sunday liturgy into a political rally.

If the four Massachusetts bishops want to fashion themselves ward bosses, let them pay to play, like any other taxpayer.

Earlier this month, Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley wrote in The Pilot, the house organ of the Boston Archdiocese, that the divisive gay marriage debate "demands unity in our opposition but charity in the way the debate is conducted." How does he square that with the scare tactics directed at parishioners from the pulpit and the threats directed at lawmakers?

"Doubtless many Catholics who are homosexual or have friends and relatives who are homosexual find the present climate of debate on same-sex marriages very distressing," O'Malley wrote. "We need to assure them that we disagree with the way the debate is being framed to exploit people's emotions." How does O'Malley square that with the decision of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the church's well-financed lobbying arm, to distribute a videotape to parishes that, among other poisonous claims, contends that the poor and the elderly will suffer if same-sex couples are not denied their constitutional right to marry?

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posted by Eve at 6:37 PM | link

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