Back in 2010, the Daily News published an article where Vito Lopez was accused of trying to close Roman Catholic Churches in his district where the priests were his political enemies.
The article noted Lopez’s response to the charges:
Lopez spokeswoman Debra Feinberg said the Democratic boss was "saddened to learn" of the closures and mergers, adding that he's fought to keep churches economically viable.
At the time I wrote:
To me, the really distressing thing here is not the charge, but the admission.
Just hypothetically, let's take Lopez at his word: He did not try to use the power of government to get the Diocese of Brooklyn to close churches; he used the power of government to try to get the Diocese of Brooklyn to keep open churches they wanted to close.
While this may not be quite as great an evil as the allegation in this article, is it not just as great a violation of the Free Exercise clause for a politician to use the power of government to interfere with the internal decisions of a religious denomination?
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