Rescued by the Protestants

"Aimed at the Catholic Church" are the words with which the Globe described a bill recently postponed from a vote on Beacon Hill . The bill would impose strict financial disclosure and reporting requirements on all religious institutions in the Commonweath. Said the Globe article:

[Protestant] Church representatives who huddled with [Massachusetts House Speaker] DiMasi yesterday said that all religious organizations would be caught up in the requirements of a bill that was aimed at the Catholic Church.

Yes, that damn "equal justice under law" concept keeps getting in the way of legislative pogroms.

Earlier, the (Protestant) Council of Churches had said in writing to the legislature, ''We are concerned about the impropriety of using the legislative arm of government to deal with an internal conflict of one church and the dangerous precedent of the legislature getting into the business of regulating and . . . reforming religious institutions. "

The hard-of-hearing Catholic Bishops should note that their credibility is so badly depleted that now they must rely on a group of Protestant ministers to make their case to a legislature that is composed mainly of Catholics.