Daniel Burke of Religion News Service filed this story this afternoon:
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has blocked a conservative website from employees' computers, saying the anonymous bloggers, who have sharply criticized archdiocesan leaders, were causing a distraction.
Archdiocesan spokesman Terrence C. Donilon told the Boston Globe that bloggers from “Boston Catholic Insider” had been “spamming” employees by sending links to the website and “interfering with their work day.”
“Cardinal O'Malley and his staff are dedicated to building unity in Christ and Christian community within the archdiocese,” Donilon said in a statement. “We are concerned about the harm caused to individuals and to the community by anonymous and unfounded claims on the blogs.”
An open, but unsigned letter from the bloggers to Cardinal Sean O'Malley and other Boston Catholic leaders was posted on Monday (Aug. 23). The bloggers said they are committed to exposing “corruption, cronyism, and general direction of the Archdiocese.”
The bloggers are primarily concerned with the financial management of the archdiocese, charging that it overpays employees, spends money without transparency, and has ignored conflicts of interest in the sale of its health care system to a private, secular company.
