Church Tax Status

* Re Lawrence Tonsick’s Feb. 12 letter, “Church Tax Exemption”: A Newport Beach Catholic and Presbyterian church working together so that they may both expand their facilities for worship and social services somehow prompts him to say that their tax-exempt status should be revoked. Where is the connection here? If a church can afford it, it has every right to expand. And 10% of what it raises is going to social charities.

What is this “new religious clubhouse” that it is building? It is a new school to educate children because the old one is overcrowded. The Catholic Church is the largest provider of social services in Orange County and the entire world.

LOUIS J. GIOVINO

Catholic League for Religious

and Civil Rights, New York