Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Outrage in Connecticut

Anthony Esolen discusses the unconstitutional bill in Connecticut which threatened to infringe upon the freedom of Catholic citizens. It has since been tossed out but the fact that such a bill was ever introduced is not a good thing. To quote:
I'd heard about this bill from chatter on the Internet, but it was so outrageous I thought I'd give it a few days to die of shame before I bothered to comment on it....The bill would, essentially, remove from the jurisdiction of the pope and the bishops of Connecticut all authority to establish and to manage Catholic organizations, including parishes themselves, which would instead be directed by state-mandated councils of thirteen laymen. The bill contemptuously declares that the clergy would in no way be prohibited from the free exercise or teaching of their faith -- when in fact that is precisely what the bill is designed to do; indeed it serves no other purpose at all than to make the laity the paymasters and the directors. Sneaking in the corner we find that relegation of religion to the private and sentimental and ultimately ineffectual and irrelevant that our juridical and legislative betters devoutly wish to be the case....

In any case, the battle is here. And it is not a battle for my Catholic Church alone. It is a battle for all the churches, and for the soul of this republic: we will either have the free exercise of our faith, without being pecked to death by courts and bureaucrats and addled lawmakers, or we will be wards of the state, like old ladies allowed to hug our stuffed animals in a nursing home. And here I have a vision. Bishop Martino of Scranton shows me the path of our counterattack. If the Freedom of Choice Act passes, he has recently said, and if it means that Catholic hospitals will have to provide abortions or contraception, then he will shut down the three Catholic hospitals in Lackawanna County immediately and board them up. The county -- no, the commonwealth itself could not sustain the loss of those hospitals. It would be an instant crisis; and it would have to be done, or freedom of religion would die....
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1 comment:

Alexandra said...

I saw it as well. Quite scary. Thanks God for the Constitution and our Bill of Rights.