When I first heard about this story I figured it had to be a misunderstanding. Nobody could be so dense. But then, we’re dealing with professional politicians here – density needs a whole new scale for that conversation. In case you’ve been under a rock the past couple of days, in short, two Connecticut legislators have introduced a bill that would essentially establish the goals of VOTF as law for the Catholic Church in the state – to destroy the Apostolic nature of the Church and legally require it to be run as just any other company. CNA has the full scoop.
“If this bill were to be enacted, your bishop, would have virtually, virtually no real relationship with the 87 parishes…they could go off independently, some of them could break off from the Church if they wished, and go their own way as has happened, for example, with the Episcopal Church. And the pastors would be figureheads, simply working for a board of trustees,” Bishop Lori explained at a meeting of Catholic school principals.
Let us pause briefly to remember that only a few months ago Connecticut was the scene of a vigorous battle over same-sex “marriage”. Those in power in the state have some vendettas still to be fulfilled. How does that tie in to a bill ostensibly intended to improve fiscal oversight in the aftermath of two cases where priests embezzled large amounts of Church funds for their own purposes? How?
Both lawmakers, who are prominent homosexuals, have been vociferous advocates of same-sex marriage in Connecticut and have spoken out against the Catholic Church’s opposition to both civil unions and same-sex marriage.
That’s how. This is nothing more than penny-ante tit-for-tat, but on a scale so large it dwarfs the two legislators who started this whole ball rolling. The Church does not, indeed cannot, operate under such conditions. That the Catholic Church is explicitly called out in this proposed legislation cannot go unnoticed. I’ll close with the same quote from Philip Lacovara as CNA in their piece:
“You now have before your Committee a bill that tests your fidelity to your constitutional duty. The bill is No. 1098, which candidly announces that its purpose is to ‘revise the corporate governance provisions [of the Connecticut Statutes] applicable to the Roman Catholic Church.’”
“In more than forty years as a constitutional law teacher and practitioner,” writes Lacovara, “I cannot recall a single piece of proposed legislation at any level of government that more patently runs afoul of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment that does this bill.”
Connecticut, once my home. Step away from the abyss of untethered secularism and rampant illiberal liberalism. The state known for the vigorous defense of Constitutional ideals by her citizens – so beloved as to earn the name “The Constitution State” – do not in such haste throw away all that merely to appease the wanton desires of a few. May that great oak once again grow straight and strong, wrap her limbs around the Constitution as she once protected her colonial charter and protect it from destruction!
