According to HeadlineBistro.com, Bishop Lori called on the sponsoring legislators to apologize to the people of Connecticut. He told the crowd that even a first year law student would know better than to propose S.B. 1098.
Archbishop Mansell said the proposed law has embarrassed the state and the legislators, arguing that it makes no sense for a state with a $1 billion deficit to tell the Church how to run its finances.
According to HeadlineBistro, the crowd at times began spontaneous performances of “God Bless America” and at other times directed their ire towards legislators, chanting “Throw them out!” and “We vote!”
The day before the rally, State Senator L. Scott Frantz of Greenwich spoke against the bill. He called it an “unconstitutional attack on the intrinsic separation of church and state… to see that freedom so blatantly diluted by this legislation is something I will oppose every step of the way.”
“The bill should never have made it to the point of a public hearing,” he said, noting that the entire Senate Republican Caucus opposes the bill.
According to a statement from Sen. Frantz’s office, the bill would also allow any person who suspected money donated to the Church has been used for purposes other than those the donor intended to report the claim to the state Attorney General, who must then investigate and take necessary action.
The controversial legislation had been introduced last week by the chairs of the Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut State Legislature, Senator Andrew McDonald of Stamford and Representative Michael Lawlor of East Haven.
Both lawmakers are prominent homosexuals who have been vociferous advocates of same-sex marriage in Connecticut and have spoken out against the Catholic Church’s opposition to both civil unions and same-sex marriage.
The lawmakers said they had introduced the legislation at the request of two constituents, who on Tuesday requested the legislation be withdrawn.
“It is clear to me that my attempt to create a forum for a group of concerned Catholic constituents to discuss their legislative proposals regarding parish corporate finances has offended a group of similarly devout Catholic parishioners,” McDonald said in a Wednesday statement, saying he intended no offense.
Julie Winkel, Director of Media Relations at the University of New Haven, informed CNA in an e-mail that a university accounting faculty member named Mary J. Miller, has consulted with the Diocese of Bridgeport in 2007 and 2008 to standardize parish accounting systems and to design new parish internal controls, policies and procedures.
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“[Miller] notes that the systems put in place at the Diocese of Bridgeport have actually became a national model to other Catholic Dioceses as well as non-Catholic denominations, making additional oversight and this bill unnecessary,” Winkel told CNA. “She is currently working with Archdioceses of Chicago and Boston and the Diocese of Dallas to implement the standard Parish accounting systems of the ‘Bridgeport Plan’.”