How is this not government interference in religion? Boston City Council members are proposing a vote on church closings. It would be a non-binding resolution that asked whether the Archdiocese of Boston “has failed” in the handling of parish closings.
The councilor behind this is Jerry McDermott. Gee, why does his name sound familiar? Oh yeah, he’s the city councilor who was attacking the archdiocese when his local Catholic school, Our Lady of the Presentation in Brighton, was closed.
Even though this resolution is non-binding it is still government interference. You can’t have government officials in their official positions inciting public sentiment against a particular religion. Among other thing, it may be a violation of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. I hope the archdiocese challenges this one in court.
Whatever problems there may be in parish closings, we can’t allow the precedent to be set for government interference and political grandstanding.
Sadly, we don’t even have to ASK who would be on the side of closing fewer Churches. It would be the City Council and what does that tell us about how far we’ve fallen?
But let’s be honest about why they would be on that side. It’s not because they think the mission of the Church would be better served by more churches. They know that if popular opinion is against church closings then they can garner more votes by pandering to that sentiment.