Our Father who art in ... Hartford?

In Connecticut, the ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have proposed legislation aimed at one church. The legislation would require individual Roman Catholic (only) parishes to be structured and governed in a particular way. In its current form, it is called Raised Bill 1098. It won't pass. But you can imagine what this means. Legislators feel free to attack the First Amendment. Anti-religion is on the rise. In (fill-in-the-blank) We Trust? This is what I wrote to my legislators and to the bill's authors:

It is a frightening day when the government acts directly against a religious group. I am adamantly opposed to any intervention by the Legislature into the governance of the
Catholic Church. I urge you to oppose Raised Bill 1098.

On its face, this proposed bill is a violation of the separation of Church and State. Perhaps more importantly, how does such a blatently unconstitutional bill get this far?

I am concerned that the lessons of history are lost on the very people who have been given the authority to write history. One of the core precepts of this country is religious freedom. This right allows individuals to join institutions based on their free will. If the institution is not being governed in a way that makes sense, each of us has the right and ability to choose another institution. If any individual's constitutional rights are being abridged, there are already state and federal laws that can be brought to bear.

That a legislator would use the power of government to attempt to force an organizational change in the Catholic Church is stunning. If this attempt succeeds, the consequences are almost too profound to grasp. Imagine a priest being arrested for carrying out pastoral and episcopal duties. Imagine individual believers having to declare for a 'state-sanctioned' church, with tax levies or other consequences for failure to comply.

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews, And I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew;

And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

- Martin Niemoller

The issues facing the Church are real and need to be addressed by its membership. The legislature has no role to play.