Conneticut Catholic Church Under Attack, Again!

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Sound familiar?

So if your local Bishop speaks out against a law which is designed to interfere with the established heirarchical structure of the Church should he have to register as a lobbyist?
Isn't a religious group or Church afforded more constitutional protections than AARP or the AMA? I mean, it is written in the Constitution. Well, there is an alarming trend in this Country that appears we are devolving into "mob rule" Legislators and government officials ignore the Constitution. Conneticut is a case in point.

As some might recall the Connecticut Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut State Legislature introduced bill #1098/2009 which directly attacked the Roman Catholic Church. The bill would have stripped pastors and the Bishop of administrative, financial and legal authority over parishes by mandating them to be run by elected laypersons as corporate entities.

Well His Excellency, Bishop Lori, spoke out against this bill and a protest was organized. The bill was defeated..... the powers of darkness crawled back into the abyss. However, not for long.

As reported on the Diocese of Bridgport website: On April 23, 2009, the Diocese received a letter from Thomas K. Jones, Ethics Enforcement Officer for the OSE, stating that it was "the subject of an Office of State Ethics evaluation," which was "being conducted to ascertain whether the Diocese had violated [Connecticut General Statutes Sections] 1-94, 1-95 and 1-96 by failing to register as a lobbyist in Connecticut, by failing to submit all other appropriate lobbyist filings, and by failing to follow all applicable registration procedures."

It turns out that the Catholic Church has to register with the State agency and have its activities evaluated by the State of Connecticut Office of State Ethics (OSE). There are onerous reporting requirements for "lobbying" that the Catholic Church is being asked to comply with in simply exercising Constitutionally protected First Amendment rights. This is just wrong on so many levels. At best the legislators and govenmental officials in the State of Conneticut are unfit for public office since they repeatedly ignore the Federal Constitutional.... or worse, they try to neutralize the Catholic Church's ability to preach the authentic Gospel within the State of Conneticut. Perhaps they would prefer if Jim Wallis or Harry Knox were Bishop... perhaps the State Legislature could just pass a law saying so!

I can't think of a more blatant pattern of behaviour that suggests it is "open season" on the Catholic Church in America!

Hat Tip Creative Minority Report