Boston Mayor urges archdiocese to stay in city

The Boston Globe reports:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston is strongly objecting to the likelihood that the storied but scandal-wracked Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, which is preparing to celebrate its bicentennial, will move out of the city.

Archdiocesan officials, strapped for cash, are in the final stages of negotiating a deal to move their offices from the campus in Brighton where they have been headquartered since the 1920s to a four-story building off Route 128 in Braintree as part of an ongoing effort to raise money to resolve the financial crisis touched off by the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

Menino, who has at times been critical of the archdiocese for its handling of the abuse scandal and parish closings, said it would be a mistake for the archdiocese to move its offices from the city.

"The Archdiocese of Boston is an institution that belongs in our city," Menino said in a statement yesterday. "The people most in need of charitable services provided by the church and arch diocese are here in our urban neighborhoods. To move the Archdiocese of Boston out of Boston raises serious concerns about the future mission and role of the church in serving this community."

You thought the Democratic Party was for separation of church and state? What a hoot.Great moments in the incredible shrinking job market in Boston.