From Gay Star News: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/irs-asked-investigate-catholic-bishops%E2%80%99-political-meddling041112
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been asked to investigate the country’s Conference of Catholic Bishops over their involvement in political campaigning.
The Conference of Catholic Bishops has a IRC 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. However groups with that tax exempt status are banned from participating in political campaigns or endorsing or opposing political candidates.
Bishops from the Conference have repeatedly weighed in on issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion and contraception, resulting in the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) lodging a complaint with the IRS.
The group cites the actions of numerous bishops from the Conference in the lead up to the US Presidential Election which they believe breach the organization’s tax exempt status.
These include Illinos bishop Daniel Jenky who instructed every priest in his diocese to read a letter out at every Weekend Mass this weekend attacking US President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in the US Senate.
Jenky, who has previously likened Obama to Stalin and Hitler, instructed priests to tell Catholics that their religious freedoms were under threat, comparing Catholics who supported pro-choice candidates to Pontius Pilate.
‘This assault upon our religious freedom is simply without precedent in the American political and legal system,’ Jenky wrote.
Continue reading at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/irs-asked-investigate-catholic-bishops%E2%80%99-political-meddling041112
See also: Raw Story: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops faces IRS complaint over partisan advocacy
