BOSTON (MA)
Berkshire Eagle
By Rebecca Deusser, Eagle Boston Bureau
Monday, March 20
BOSTON — State Sen. Marian Walsh, D-Boston, says she is a Catholic in pain.
She is still dealing with disappointment roughly four years after the Catholic clergy sex-abuse scandal rocked Greater Boston.
"There has been an awareness and awakening in the public since we learned ... the Catholic Church was systematically sexually abusing children, covering it up and paying people off," she said. "That trust the public had was a blind trust, and I had it."
Walsh, a Boston Democrat, experienced another disappointment in late January, when House lawmakers killed a bill she filed requiring all tax-exempt religious groups to make their financial records public, after an outcry from some faith groups.
Some local church leaders say that the defeat marked a victory for them, preventing state government from crossing the constitutional line separating church and state.