By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
National outrage has caused the proponents of a bill granting lay people financial control of Catholic parishes in Connecticut to withdraw the draft legislation citing constitutional difficulties.
The bill would have replaced an existing law that defines Catholic churches and congregations as nonprofit corporations operated by a five-member board of three clergy and two laypeople. Instead, the measure called for boards to be made up of seven to 13 laypeople elected by parishioners. It said the pastor would not be a member of the board and the bishop would serve as an ex officio nonvoting member.
According to CathNewsUSA, the two Connecticut legislators who proposed the bill, Sen. Andrew J. McDonald of Stamford and Rep. Michael Lawlor of East Haven, announced yesterday that they were withdrawing the bill.
“At the request of the proponents who are advocating this legislation, we have decided to cancel the public hearing . . . (and) table any further consideration of this bill for the duration of this session, and ask the attorney general his opinion regarding the constitutionality of the existing law,” said McDonald and Lawlor, both Democrats and Catholics, in a joint statement.
“It would serve no useful purpose to have a conversation about changing the laws that govern existing Catholic corporations until we know if any of these existing laws are constitutional,” they said.
According to Lawrence B. Cook, a spokesman for Connecticut Senate Democrats, the legislation was introduced on March 5 by a group of Catholics concerned about the management of parish funds following the embezzlement conviction of a Connecticut priest. Cook said the group of Catholics proposed the legislation in order to have better oversight into how collection money is being spent.
Not everyone is buying this explanation, however. Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport called the bill “a thinly veiled attempt to silence the Catholic Church on the important issues of the day, such as same-sex marriage,” he said in a statement.
“The state has no right to interfere in the internal affairs and structure of the Catholic Church. This bill is directed only at the Catholic Church, but could someday be forced on other denominations. The state has no business controlling religion.”
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, also called into question the motives of the group of Catholics who came up with the idea.
In a March 10 statement, he referred to them as “Catholic left-wing activists” who underestimated the reaction the bill would receive from rank-and-file Catholics.
“To be specific, Voice of the Faithful, a dissident Catholic group comprised mainly of senior citizens, has been promoting a lay Catholic takeover of the Catholic Church for many years.”
In addition, Donohue believes the two lawmakers who cooperated by pushign the bill are deserving of censure.
“Every pre-law undergraduate knows that what Lawlor and McDonald tried to pull off—in stealth fashion—was flagrantly unconstitutional. For their fascist stunt, they should at least be censured by their colleagues. Ideally, they should resign or be forced out of office.”
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