House rejects disclosure of religious funds

The Massachusetts House yesterday overwhelmingly defeated legislation that would have required religious organizations to file annual financial reports with the state, dealing a major blow to lawmakers who had said they wanted to make churches and other religious groups more accountable to the public.

By a lopsided vote of 147 to 3, the House shot down the measure after an intense lobbying campaign against the bill by a wide range of religious organizations, including the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Just days before, supporters were predicting victory and hoping to capture enough votes to override a probable veto by Governor Mitt Romney.

Ultimately, fears about the bill eroding the constitutional wall between church and state proved to be more compelling to House members than a desire for greater financial transparency.

''We are being asked by the proponents of this legislation to radically change our understanding of the role and liberty of religious institutions in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," Representative Byron Rushing, the second assistant majority leader and a leading opponent of the bill, said in a long and impassioned speech on the House floor.

The bill would have required all religious organizations to file limited information about their finances and real estate holdings annually with the attorney general's charities division, and would have mandated that any organization with annual revenues of more than $500,000 to file detailed financial reports every year.

The legislation, which generated scores of phone calls and e-mails to legislators in recent weeks, was seen as a major test of the Catholic Church's influence on Beacon Hill. But the Catholic Church was just one of many religious groups that warned lawmakers that the bill would lead to an unwarranted and costly intrusion by the state into the practice of religion.

The bill was also the latest in a stream of controversial measures that House leaders have brought to the floor in recent weeks, including failed legislation to grant in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants and a primary seat belt bill that narrowly passed last week.

Religious leaders said after the vote that they were gratified that the House recognized that the proposed scrutiny was unnecessary. ''Everything that needs to be disclosed to our congregations is exactly that: disclosed," said Bishop Robert G. Brown of Zion Church Ministries in Everett.

Earlier this week, Romney dealt a significant setback to efforts to pass the bill when he announced his opposition, which meant supporters would need a two-thirds majority to override his expected veto. The Senate passed the bill last year by a large margin, but it was attached to a separate piece of legislation and didn't face an up-or-down vote on its own.

Romney's veto threat was made amid a peak of lobbying against the bill. Last week, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley distributed a letter to parishes, and other religious leaders spoke out during services over the weekend. Yesterday, several ministers watched intently in the House gallery, underscoring the broad base of opposition against the bill.

''The real story here is that it's the first time in a long time that the Legislature is aware that there are churches outside the archdiocese," said the Rev. Stephen T. Ayres, vicar of Old North Church in Boston.

Yesterday's defeat, which came after three hours of debate, followed active behind-the-scenes politicking in the State House, with proponents of the bill trying to offer amendments to win support from chary House members, and opponents raising concerns about the First Amendment.

One amendment, which sought an advisory opinion on the bill from the Supreme Judicial Court, was defeated by a more than 2-to-1 margin. Another amendment pushed by bill sponsors, designed to soften opposition by restricting most reporting requirements to larger religious groups, was deemed out of scope by the House clerk and not taken up at all.

Though the bill would have applied to all religious groups, the archdiocese was a clear target. Some lawmakers and lay Catholics have demanded more information about the financial health and holdings of the archdiocese as it settled civil suits from the clergy sexual abuse crisis and launched a reconfiguration of parishes.

The chief sponsor, state Senator Marian Walsh, said after the vote that while she did not question her colleagues' judgment, the outcome showed that institutional religion remains a powerful force in Massachusetts and that money is one of the most sensitive topics. Walsh had said Monday she was confident the bill would get at least a majority in the House.

''I think the religious organizations became very threatened by it," said Walsh, a West Roxbury Democrat. ''They want to control what is shared and how it's shared."

Walsh said she was open to considering future legislative efforts on financial transparency.

Representative Robert K. Coughlin, one of the bill's leading proponents in the House, rejected suggestions it would impinge on religious freedom. ''The bill's language is limited to financial reporting," he said. ''It has nothing to do with religious practices."

Last year, O'Malley pledged to voluntarily disclose church finances. Yesterday, his spokesman, Terrence C. Donilon, reiterated the plans to disclose this spring. ''The archbishop remains committed to financial transparency and to providing full and complete information about the archdiocese's financial condition to the people of the archdiocese," Donilon said.

Many opponents of the legislation acknowledged the anguish caused by the clergy sexual abuse scandal and the Catholic Church's parish closings but said this bill was the wrong way to deal with it.

''We feel their pain," said Harold Sparrow, executive director of the Black Ministerial Alliance, who watched the debate from the House gallery. ''But we could not agree with this legislation."

Representative Philip Travis, a Rehoboth Democrat, was more blunt on the House floor. ''The bill was filed for the wrong reasons," he said. ''We all know that."

Charles A. Radin of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.