Saturday, January 21, 2006

 

clinging to outdated attitudes

The Catholic archdiocese in Boston is fighting tooth and nail to prevent passage of a state law requiring financial and administrative disclosure from large religious organization. Archbishop O'Malley is complaining that the law targets the Catholic church. Yuh think?
This weekend he sent a letter urging parishioners to fight the law. I'm not sure that ordinary laypeople have anything to gain from continued secrecy. This isn't medieval Europe. The church has already learned to adapt to a society where citizens feel intitled to information that has bearing on their lives.

A few years ago our local church found itself with big settlements to pay off as a result of misconduct, secrecy and mismanagement. One pastor was lauded in the official church press for giving up the money that his parish had collected for a new roof to their sanctuary and turning the money over to the lawsuit fund.
I think that I would have been pretty upset if I'd given money for a specific practical project and it had been used for something else. Here's one way O'Malley could fight the law: He could voluntarily release the his diocese's financial records. If the church has nothing to hide, there is no reason for secrecy.

There are Catholics all over the country -- maybe all over the world -- whose trust was so shaken by the abuse revelations and subsequent settlements that they have reduced or discontinued their financial contributions. Maybe it would make them give again if they felt treated as members of the body rather than ignorant voiceless cash cows.

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