I thought religious institutions were supposed to stay out of politics? Isn’t that what the tax breaks are all about? I know I’m being naive, but surely blatant abuses such as this ought to have consequences.

I know, I know…. sigh.

Ray, religious institutions are prohibited by IRS regulations from promoting specific candidates and political parties, but they are allowed to take public positions and actions on issues.

Thank you for the clarification. I’m a Brit, which I will use as an excuse for my ignorance of the details

Since religious institutions in the U.S. often use the privilege to behave this way, I’m not sure you’re so much “ignorant” as “smarter than we are.”

It’s past time for the Catholics, (and every other group organized around a superstition), to STFU or start paying taxes like every other lobbyist.

Fat chance of that with all the Catholics on the Supremes. They’ll stop everything that is tried.

Does anyone else get the sneaking suspicion that all this relatively recent folderol by the RC Church vis birth control, female sexytime, anti-gay marriage, etc, is being loudly trumpeted right now to take the attention off their pedophile priests & related law suits by those who were raped by said priests, etc??

I realize it’s also related to the current election season, and it helps to deflect the attention of the rubes from the real source of this nation’s ills, which is the massive rip-off of the 99% by the 1%.

I was raised Catholic, but voted with my feet more than 20 years ago. My biggest regret is not having done so much sooner.

You know, that’s a good point! I, like Ray M, was laboring under the impression that the RCC was violating the tax code. That the richest organization in the world can get away with these activities-tax free-is pathetic. Granted, I am a “Godless” Liberal, and poor to boot, so my opinion is worth absolutely nothing.

I tire of their constant meddling in the affairs of the States.

Catholic churchgoers have no idea how much of their money is secretly diverted into political campaigns to hurt LGBT people. Every week, the clergy beg for more cash to help the starving, naked, homeless, and sick, but then go get government funds to pay for all that work, and then secretly — and unlawfully — divert churchgoers’ donations into political campaigns.

This madness will cease only when every Catholic churchgoer demands an independent, public audit showing how many church dollars are spent on labor, materials, broadcasts, postage, lawyers, lobbyists, etc. Once it’s known how many tens of millions of dollars the Catholic, Mormon, and other churches spend on such efforts, society will be appalled, and Catholic donors will halt such funding immediately.

LGBT Catholics will be especially outraged to learn how many of their very own dollars are being used to oppress them.

The Church is ‘pro-life,’ and against the death penalty. How come we never have the Church protesting the death penalty then? (Okay, maybe some do, but not so’s you’d know.)

And why not represent more on issues of war, poverty, health? Why the morbid fixation on sexuality? Odd, considering the pederasty of the Church.

(P.S. They push superstition and want tax-breaks even after they step into politics. Bah!)

Please, please tell me why the Catholic Church still has not-for-profit status? The Mormon and Catholic church poured so much money into California to sway the vote on Prop. 8 it was unreal.

And now this.

I wish that the IRS would start an investigation.

What do men who live in cloisters, who voluntarily chose a life of sexual repression and frustration, who chose NOT to marry and engage in the real-world pursuits of marriage and raising children, including feeding, housing, clothing, educating, and protecting them from twisted pedophile priests — what do these men know about “marriage,” and why would anybody take them seriously at ALL?