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	Church Financial Disclosure Bill Hits Snag Religious Leaders Feared 'Collateral Damage' TheBostonChannel.com [Boston MA] November 17, 2005 BOSTON -- A bill requiring religious organizations to disclose their finances ran into opposition in the House after leaders of smaller religious denominations said they feared becoming "collateral damage" in the Roman Catholic church's clergy sexual abuse scandal. The bill was set to be debated by the House on Wednesday, the last scheduled day of formal debate for the year, but at the last minute the vote was put off. Backers of the bill, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate last week, said religious groups should be held to the same reporting requirements as other public charities. They argued that financial secrecy helped the Catholic church in Massachusetts hide the burgeoning clergy sexual abuse scandal, even as church officials shuffled abusive priests from parish to parish. But representatives of smaller religious organizations say the bill violates the constitutional separation between church and state and unfairly sweeps them into the middle of a dispute between the Catholic church and disgruntled parishioners. "This is a legislative way of trying to seek change within the Roman Catholic archdiocese which is clearly not the business of the Legislature," said Laura Everett, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Council of Churches, which represents 17 Protestant and orthodox churches. "The rest of the churches are collateral damage." Rep. Byron Rushing, D-Boston, a member of the House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi's leadership team, said he asked DiMasi to postpone debate. Rushing said the bill is a clear violation of the church-state separation because it seeks to benefit the parishioners of a single religion. Even if lawmakers find a way over the church-state hurdle, Rushing said, they have to decide how much financial information is reasonable to ask a religious group to disclose. "At what point should churches have some privacy in this and at one point do we need to intrude," said Rushing, who is Episcopalian. "Even if you deal with the constitutional question, you have to ask is there a better way to do this?" Sen. Marian Walsh, D-Boston, the bill's chief sponsor, said it treats all religious organizations equally. She acknowledged the bill was born out of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, but said it exposed a larger flaw in the public charities law. Religious groups are given the same tax breaks as other public charities and should be held to the same reporting standards, said Walsh, who is Catholic. "Taxpayers should have the same sunshine whether it be a religious charity or a nonreligious charity on what is happening with their subsidy," she said. "That's why it's a public charity, because it gets a public subsidy." The Senate approved the bill by a 33-4 vote. DiMasi said he decided to put off the vote out of deference to the concerns of religious groups and to give House lawmakers more time to review the bill. "I don't think there was any urgency," said DiMasi, D-Boston. Rushing said the bill would place a heavy burden on other religious groups. While the Catholic church is divided into four large dioceses in Massachusetts, and would have to file by diocese, most other religious groups would have to file individually. Rushing also said it's unfair to lump religious groups in with charities. "While many religious organizations engage in charitable works, they do not get their tax benefits because they are charities, but because they are religious organizations," he said. Edward Saunders Jr., executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, also said the bill crosses the constitutional line between church and state. "They're trying to use government to resolve an internal problem that they have with the Catholic church," he said. Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley last month pledged "full disclosure" of the archdiocese's finances, including the sources of all clergy sex abuse lawsuit settlement payments and the fiscal health of every parish. He compared the self-imposed rules to the disclosures required of public corporations.
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