Taking a cue from the federal Democrats in Washington, DC, the Connecticut Democrats have decided that the Constitution no longer protects religion from the government:
This past Thursday, March 5, the Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut State Legislature, which is chaired by Sen. Andrew McDonald of Stamford and Rep. Michael Lawlor of East Haven, introduced a bill that directly attacks the Roman Catholic Church and our Faith.
This bill violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. It forces a radical reorganization of the legal, financial, and administrative structure of our parishes. This is contrary to the Apostolic nature of the Catholic Church because it disconnects parishes from their Pastors and their Bishop. Parishes would be run by boards from which Pastors and the Bishop would be effectively excluded.
This bill, moreover, is a thinly-veiled attempt to silence the Catholic Church on the important issues of the day, such as same-sex marriage.
This is mind-boggling. One of the few issues that people of all political stripes agree on is that the government has no role in religion, and is forbidden by the Constitution from interferring with religion.
In defense of their actions, Democrat Mike Lawler, one of the people who introduced the bill, offers this lame explanation:
… the current state statutes governing Roman Catholic corporations … were enacted in 1955. SB 1098 is a proposal to make changes in that law, which was suggested by parishioners who were the victims of theft of their funds in several parishes, and these parishioners feel that the state’s existing Roman Catholic Corporate laws prevented them from dealing with the misuse and theft of funds.
I agree with you that the whole notion of having a statute governing the church seems like an intrusion on the separation of church and state, but the current law does that already. Perhaps we should repeal the whole thing, but if we are going to have a corporate law of this type, it probably should make sure there cannot be deception of parishioners.
As pointed out by Cassi Fiano at Wizbang:
Here’s the problem with that reasoning. Theft and fraud are already against the law. If a parishioner believes that theft and/or fraud has taken place, then they can take legal action. If they feel they’ve been deceived, then obviously there’s no legal action they can take — there’s no law against lying or deception, even if it’s not very nice to lie to or deceive someone.
This bill needs to be defeated by a landslide. Although this bill targets the Roman Catholic Church, tomorrow it could be applied to the Methodist Church, and then the Luthern Church, and so on. People of all faiths need to rise up against this unconstitutional attempt to usurp the authority of the Catholic Church over their Parishes.
UPDATE: Due to the public outcry, the bill has been killed for this session.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I am a evangelical Christian, but wholeheartedly support all people of faith to keep the state out of our church!
I live in New London area, is there a bus/van going up to Hartford tomorrow?
March 10th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
The site that I got the story from says this:
You might send him an email to see if he has details yet.
March 10th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Be advised that the Federal Constitution has not been violated. The State of Connecticut Constitution was in fact violated. It was STATE politicians that tried this maneuver and this was a litmus test. Just thought I would throw that out there.
http://tinyurl.com/cu83q3
March 11th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Mark, you link isn’t working. Can you provide a working link?