By Rebecca Deusser
Berkshire Eagle
March 20, 2006
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/headlines/ci_3620396
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."
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| State Sen. Marian Walsh |
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.
But the Legislature could be poised for another divisive debate if lawmakers take up a bill filed by Gov. Mitt Romney to exempt religious groups from allowing gay couples to adopt children through their services.
Catholic Charities in Boston voted to end its adoption program with the state because it says that its religious beliefs conflict with the legal requirement to give gays equal consideration as prospective parents.
"Because it is so Catholic here, and the scandal was felt so deeply here, so many people felt they should have been able to stop this, and it was wrong it wasn't stopped," said Nancy Ammerman, a professor of sociology of religion at Boston University School of Theology. "(Lawmakers) want to use their power to make sure something terrible like this doesn't happen again."
The Massachusetts Catholic Conference estimates that 65 percent of state lawmakers are Catholic. In 1999, the last year religion was officially counted in the Legislature, 75 percent were Catholic. State Sen. Steven Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, said the number of bills in the Legislature that run counter to Catholic values is unprecedented.
"Senate President (William) Bulger wouldn't have let (these bills) see the light of day, and the same with Speaker Finneran," Panagiotakos said. "There seems to be a collision of state and church as this time in our history, and it's happening nationally. You hope we will work through it as a democracy."
Ammerman said a movement "to make sure the church doesn't get away with anything" is set in a context where the relationship between government and faith-based charities is changing.
"Religious-based organizations do a good job, so we give them some of our tax dollars (for social services), and they set up a separate organization with a secular set of rules," she said. "The push for faith-based organizations for charitable choice calls that truce into question. ... It's a volatile situation where people don't know what the rules are."
The Legislature has passed a string of controversial bills in recent years, unrelated to Walsh's bill, including gay marriage, stem cell research and the requirement that all hospitals administer emergency contraception.
» Rifts between the Legislature and the Catholic Church
Abortion — The church has criticized efforts to create protest-free 'buffer zones' around abortion clinics, saying that the state should not 'criminalize peaceful assembly.'
Emergency contraception — Catholic hospitals are resisting a new law requiring all hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims upon demand.
Gay marriage — The church is backing efforts to repeal gay
marriage by rewriting the state constitution to define marriage in Massachusetts as the union of a man and woman.
Stem cells — The state's four Catholic bishops condemned efforts to pass a bill to encourage stem cell research in Massachusetts, saying 'science does not have to kill in order to cure.'
Church finances — The church opposed a bill, filed in the wake of the clergy sex-abuse scandal, that would have forced religious groups to open their finances to public scrutiny.
Death penalty — The Catholic Church has publicly opposed efforts to restore capital punishment in Massachusetts, which still bans the death penalty.
Gay adoptions — Catholic Charities, the church's social service agency, is ending its century-old adoption program, rather than comply with state law barring discrimination against gays.
Some feeling attacked
Some local church leaders who spoke to The Eagle said they feel persecuted.
"The separation of church and state needs to be upheld in all areas. It's not something we can pick and choose when to abide by it," said the Rev. Pat MacHugh, pastor of United Methodist Church of Williamstown. "I have heard some people say they feel persecuted."
Still, MacHugh said the state should not grant an exemption for gay adoption.
"People are very upset by that issue," she said. "If Catholic Charities choose not to do that, it's their choice."
The Rev. Peter A. Gregory, pastor of St. Charles' Church in Pittsfield, said lawmakers are moving too quickly on issues before they get input from voters.
"This is an attack for a rebuttal of the sexual-abuse scandal," Gregory said. "Unfortunately, it should be that way. ... The church isn't going to change because of politics."
Lawmakers are keenly aware of the shift on Beacon Hill.
"The church has been under more scrutiny because of the abuses," said state Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, D-Lenox, a Catholic. "The financial disclosure bill was clearly an attack on the Catholic Church. ... It was a 'You did this, and we're going to get back at you' process. That's unfortunate."
Still, Pignatelli voiced concern that Catholic Charities decided to raise the issue of gay adoption now, even though it has been operating under the current law for a decade.
"Sometimes the church gets involved in the wrong issues, like gay adoption," he said.
Terry Donilon, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, said a conservative church is bound to collide with a Legislature traditionally liberal on social issues.
"It doesn't diminish the church, and we are doing what we think is right," Donilon said. "Politicians make decisions based on what the larger population wants. ... The church views things in centuries. ... In politics, it's a much shorter window.
"What's happening now is a dialogue that's become very combative, and this archbishop is trying to lessen that. It'd be nice if people could just talk to each other."
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