BishopAccountability.org
	Catholic League Rips Councilors over Referendum By Marie Szaniszlo Boston Herald [Boston MA] July 21, 2005 The Catholic League yesterday blasted a proposed referendum on the operations of the Boston archdiocese. "The real purpose of this is to intimidate the Archdiocese of Boston by having an arm of the state whip the public into a frenzy about matters they have no constitutional business sticking their noses into," League President William Donohue said. City councilors Jerry P. McDermott, James M. Kelly and Paul Scapicchio want the Nov. 8 ballot to include a nonbinding question asking voters whether they agree that the archdiocese has failed to work with the city's neighborhoods to mitigate the impact of Catholic parish and school closings. The councilors proposed the nonbinding question last week in the wake of Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley's decision to close more than 60 of the archdiocese's 357 parishes due to a shortage of priests, changing demographics and a financial crisis brought on largely by a drop in donations as a result of the clergy sexual-abuse scandal. The councilors claim O'Malley went ahead with the closings without sufficient thought for the city's most vulnerable people, who use many church-based food pantries, shelters and 12-step programs. In some instances, O'Malley has granted extensions to give those programs more time to relocate. But the councilors argue he should have consulted with program directors and city officials when he first announced the closings in May 2004. Donohue pledged to lobby other councilors to "shoot down this preposterous measure." "It not only smacks of total disrespect for the principle of separation of church and state, it smacks of bias," he said. "If the goal is accountability . . . why focus exclusively on the Catholic Church? This is sheer, unadulterated demagoguery."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.