Mayor's Floor Leader Blasts Catholic Church over Water Squabble

By Fran Spielman
Chicago Sun-Times
May 1, 2013

http://www.suntimes.com/news/19832952-418/mayors-floor-leader-blasts-catholic-church-over-water-squabble.html

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Council floor leader lashed out at the Catholic Church on Wednesday for rejecting the mayor’s compromise offer on water fees for nonprofits even after, the alderman claimed, failing to clean its own house on the priest sex abuse scandal.

“They’re clearly not owning up to the fact that there are people out there damaged by the church and they’re talking about free water. Really?” said Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th).

Describing himself as “a Catholic, not a happy one these days,” O’Connor said, “The church has so many internal problems, they ought to satisfy their own problems and they ought to address the things that are in the paper every day and stop talking about free water. Quit saying that they handled things right in the past or . . . or, even worse, saying mistakes were made in the past, but they’re not correcting those mistakes.”

Earlier this week, Cardinal Francis George jumped into the controversy caused by Emanuel’s decision to cut off the free water spigot to struggling churches and nonprofits that provide a safety net of social services to needy Chicagoans.

Contact: fspielman@suntimes.com