September 1, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Massachusetts legislature is considering a bill that would require churches to file annual financial reports with state authorities in the same manner as other charities. Churches would also have to file lists of real-estate holdings.
Charity leaders say the proposal — SB 1074, also known as An Act Relative to Charities in Massachusetts — is in part an effort to open the books of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston in the wake of a clergy sexual-abuse scandal.
The bill’s progress is being watched “as a test of how much clout the archdiocese still retains with the state’s political establishment,” according to The Boston Globe.
The Massachusetts Council of Churches, an ecumenical group of Orthodox and Protestant denominations, said the legislation “would constitute an unwarranted intrusion and excessive entanglement in the lives of all churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues.”
