UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Tom Roberts | May. 15, 2017
The Knights of Columbus refused to answer specific questions about data on its Form 990 tax filings and turned down an invitation to have the organization’s leader address issues raised by the documents. But a spokesman issued a lengthy, seven-point justification for the organization’s activity as well as an assessment of NCR’s journalistic intentions and how our reporters might better spend their time.
In preparing the story, NCR submitted to the Knights a list of questions seeking more details about entries lacking description on the Form 990 filings and other details regarding the filings. The Knights of Columbus was also asked to provide some further details about the compensation of Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, as detailed in the main story. Spokesman Joseph Cullen responded with a terse line or two saying the organization followed the law and that it did not discuss tax filings.
The much longer email response came when NCR sought an interview with Anderson through Cullen and sent an email describing the comments about the Knights by Catholic historians Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University and David O’Brien, long-time historian and social analyst, retired from College of the Holy Cross. Because they were not named in the email, Cullen presumed they were anonymously cited.
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