This one has me livid.
The Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut legislature has taken up Bill 1098, which, if enacted, would fundamentally change the internal governance of the Roman Catholic Church in Connecticut. Bear in mind that this bill is aimed directly at the Catholic Church and only the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church is, of course, hierarchical in organization. Authority flows down from the top and at the local church level, both clergy and laity report to the diocesan bishop who has the final word on all organization matters. The authority exercised by the parish priest is therefore delegated authority. It has ever been thus and the state legislatures have never attempted to interfere with internal governance of any church – until now.
But to the particulars. Bill 1098 would force the creation in every parish of a lay governing board on which the bishop would have ex officio membership but no vote. The parish priest would have no seat on the board but would report to it. The key provision is as follows:
(a) A corporation may be organized in connection with any Roman Catholic Church or congregation in this state, by filing in the office of the Secretary of the State a certificate signed by the archbishop or bishop and the vicar-general of the archdiocese or of the diocese in which such congregation is located and the pastor and two laymen belonging to such congregation, stating that they have so organized for the purposes hereinafter mentioned. [Such archbishop or bishop, vicar-general and pastor of such congregation and, in case of the death or other disability of the archbishop or bishop, the administrator of the archdiocese or diocese for the time being, the chancellor of the archdiocese or diocese and the pastor of such congregation shall be members, ex officio, of such corporation, and, upon their death, resignation, removal or preferment, their successors in office shall become such members in their stead. The two lay members shall be appointed annually, in writing, during the month of January from the lay members of the congregation by a majority of the ex-officio members of the corporation; and three members of the corporation, of whom one shall be a layman, shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.]
(b) The corporation shall have a board of directors consisting of not less than seven nor more than thirteen lay members. The archbishop or bishop of the diocese or his designee shall serve as an ex-officio member of the board of directors without the right to vote.
The full text of Bill 1098 is here.
What Bill 1098 does is change the Catholic Church from a hierarchical to a ‘congregational’ form of organization and it is a direct attack on the church’s unified authority. Which is the point.
The background story is that the bill’s sponsors, Sen. McDonald and Rep. Lawlor, are apparently both homosexuals and militantly so. And what better way to destroy your chief cultural nemesis than to attack its internal governance.
But these gentlemen have gone too far – way, way too far. This is, by any measure, a violation of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause and is cheap, vindictive and polecat low. Not to mention fascistic.
If by some fluke this bill becomes law, then the Church should ignore it. This is the stuff of civil disobedience.
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