Senate Bill 1098 introduced to the Judiciary Committee

The bill dictates:

• Lay Boards will have complete control of Administration and Finances of Parishes
• Bishops and pastors will not have any vote in decisions that the board makes
• Bishops and Pastors will have no say in who is elected to the lay boards.

All dictated by the state. This goes way beyond mere layman oversight which the CT dioceses have already voluntarily established. This changes the very character of the Catholic Church and its hierarchical system established by Christ. What ever happened to separation of Church and State? What is our Connecticut Legislature thinking??!!!

The Event

Hearing starting at 12 noon on Wednesday, March 11, Room 2c Legislative Office Building in Hartford, CT. Everyone should consider attending, especially those in Connecticut. Let’s make a statement.

Coverage

AirMaria.com – Will do a live broadcast from the Legislative Office Building in Hartford CT on Wednesday, March 11 starting at 11:00 am Eastern Daylight Time. Tell your friends

The Buzz

Diocese of Bridgeport Best resources!  Maps, Schedules, Video – Bishop Lori asks for 1500 or even 2200 participants, lets do better than that. Help Bishop Lori “fight the irrational, unlawful, and bigoted Proposed Bill #1098/2009”

Deal Hudson Inside Catholic, cant believe his ears.

Laura Ingram Talked about this on her radio show today with Raymond Arroyo of EWTN

Knights of Columbus – Working with the Connecticut Bishops from their World Headquarters in New Haven, CT

Catholic League – Bill Donahue is calling for the expulsion of Lawlor and McDonald who introduced the bill. He’s serious!! And gives info on how we can help.

Family Institute of Connecticut – “Big Turnout Needed Wednesday, March 11th to Stop Major New Attack on Religious Liberty!”

Senator McLachlan of CT – “Unfortunately, I think some well-intentioned, unhappy Catholics from Darien are being used as pawns by Senator McDonald and Representative Lawlor in a thinly-veiled attack on the Church.”

National Catholic Register – Anti-Church ‘Miter-Box’ Bill: “A bill removing control of parishes from bishops has been introduced in the Connecticut General Assembly. Think of the bill as a miter box — for bishops’ miters.”

Archbishop Mansell Statement – “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.”

Connecticut Catholic Conference Action Alert – “OPPOSE LEGISLATION ATTACKING CATHOLIC CHURCH” “The Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly is considering legislation that would restructure Catholic parishes.”

Norwich Diocese – “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.”

Fr. Zuhlsdorf – “This sounds like something directly from a Michael O’Brian novel”

American Papist – “Connecticut lawmakers moved this week to directly attack the self-governing rights of the Catholic Church.” and more

Free Republic

From the Liberal Dinosaurs:

Hartford Currant – Connecticut’s Catholic bishops are speaking out against a controversial bill that they claim would strip the church over control of its finances, thus jeopardizing religious liberty. The bill, introduced by the judiciary committee, would allow local parishioners to control their individual church’s financial affairs.

The post News – Calling all Catholics, Especially in Connecticut first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Connecticut Judiciary Committee can’t seem to take a hint. Now they’ve introduced Bill 1138 for Euthanasia!! Have they totally lost their minds in Hartford??!!! Let me guess … Lawlor and McDonald. They’re the only ones with the gall to do this. If I read their site correctly, the hearing will be on Friday, March 20th 10am in LOB Room 2D.

Hat tip Fr. Z

The post News – CT Judiciary Committee Continues its Suicidal Agenda, Literally first appeared on AirMaria.com.

The Family Institute of Connecticut is calling upon the citizens of this state and all concerned Catholics to join them in their effort to remove State Rep. Lawlor and Sen. McDonald from their Chairmanships of the Judicial Committee after their outrageous affront to the Catholic Church and religious liberty last week with Bill SB 1098 and their unrepentant and unrelenting onslaught of anti-family, anti-life bills this week. From CTFamily.org:

Stop the
Lawlor/McDonald
Reign of Error!

Family Institute of Connecticut Action calls upon Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams and Speaker of the House Christopher Donovan to remove Sen. Andrew McDonald and Rep. Michael Lawlor from their chairmanships of the Judiciary Committee. We call upon our members to click on the link at the bottom of this message to ask the Senate President and the Speaker of the House to remove the co-chairmen of the Judiciary Committee from their chairmanships.

Read more about how you can help here

The post News – Calling for the End of the Reign of Error in CT first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Well, it was a busy day! At about 7am we found out that the Judiciary Committee headed by McDonald and Lawlor (who pushed the anti-Catholic bill sb1098 a couple of weeks ago) had another surprise hearing at 12 noon today. We were not the only ones who were surprised. Even Senators and Representatives in the same committee were surprised. This time it was to be the vote on SB899 which is the legislative codification of the Kerrigan Supreme Court of CT case that brought in same-sex ‘marriage’.  We rushed to put together our live streaming equipment that was in total disarray from our live streaming of the Youth Pro-life Conference on Saturday. We threw everything into the car, including ourselves and headed off to Hartford, an hour away, only to find out that we had to wait another hour while the  committee went into private caucus sessions until 1pm. Although we were caught off guard it seemed that the other side, in favor of the bill, was there in force. We are never out numbered at these events. Seems they got the word and we did not. Funny that! It was the beginning of a difficult, often nauseating day listening to Senators and Representatives squashing every single effort to protect religious liberties (except one) by pummeling those that were proposing very reasonable amendments with thousands of inane questions. The result is that we have about the same protections of our rights to conscientious objections as did Massachusetts where Catholic Charities had to cease their child adoption efforts because the state was forcing them to place kids with same sex couples. Listen to Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of CT summarize this disastrous day and how you can help:

Interview with Peter Wolfgang

At least the live streaming worked well, over 1500 viewers. Ave Maria!

The post Fi News – A Long, Sad Day at the CT Capitol first appeared on AirMaria.com.