Galvin urges disclosure on church deals

Angered by what he called the lack of public disclosure by the Boston Archdiocese on its plan to close 65 churches and sell property for what could be hundreds of millions of dollars, Secretary of State William F. Galvin said yesterday that he will file legislation that would require religious organizations to report to the state details of large-scale financial transactions.

"I don't do this lightly as I know it will be considered treading on the separation of church and state, but it's absolutely not that," Galvin said. "It is an attempt to force some transparency on an institution that is making decisions on millions of dollars of property that affect thousands of people throughout Greater Boston."

Religious organizations were exempted from a 1954 law that requires charitable institutions to file annual reports with the attorney general's office detailing fund-raising and major expenditures.

Galvin said his bill would maintain that exemption except in those years where an institution has completed a sale of real estate or other assets in excess of $2 million. In those cases, the religious organization would detail circumstances of the sale and provide a full report of the group's finances for that year.

The proposal would cover all religious groups, but Galvin said he thought it was most needed for the Catholic Church. While the approval of business and real estate deals for other religions is shared among a board of directors and the church's top prelate, the Boston archbishop is the ultimate authority on sales involving the archdiocese.

The Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, spokesman for the archdiocese, declined to comment on the proposal.

-- STEPHEN KURKJIAN