Non Tasarmi, Fratello!

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!” Hillaire Belloc

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The "Constitution" State?

The State of Connecticut is unhappy with the way the Catholic Church is handling its finances, so has proposed legislation to take oversight away from the Bishop and priests and turn it over to a Diocesan board made up of laity. The Bishop will be an ex-officio (non-voting) member.

They're calling it "An Act Modifying Corporate Laws Relating to Certain Religious Corporations". In this case, the "certain Religious Corporations" is the Catholic Church ONLY.

I haven't followed this too much since the proposal is so blatantly unconstitutional to be laughable.

Interestingly, the State Constitution already regulates the Catholic Church's formation in the state:

"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."
Apparently, there are some in the Connecticut legislation that would like to remove the Bishop from overseeing his own diocese. This from a state which prevented Catholics from owning land until three decades after voting in favor of the U.S. Constitution.

And really...should the Church be taking fiscal advice from a state that is running a BILLION dollar deficit?