VOTF Fingerprints on Connecticut Bill to Control the Church

[Read my two previous posts here and here for background.]

The Connecticut Judiciary Committee has cancelled the hearing on bill 1098 and withdrawn it for now. A portion of the released statement said, "it would serve no useful purpose to have a conversation about changing the laws that govern existing Roman Catholic corporations until we know if any of these existing laws are constitutional. At the request of the proponents who are advocating this legislation, we have decided to cancel the public hearing for tomorrow, table any further consideration of this bill for the duration of this session, and ask the Attorney General his opinion regarding the constitutionality of the existing law that sets different rules for five named separate religions."

A letter from a group of law professors expressed exactly how unconstitutional the bill is. My favorite line in the letter is, "Of course dissenters within the church can withdraw from membership, but they cannot turn to the legislature and have it reform the governance of their church to their own liking. That would transfer power to govern the church from the church to the legislature."

The Diocese of Bridgeport will hold a noon rally at the capitol on Wednesday despite the cancellation. Showing a little muscle is a good idea because the assault on the Church is just beginning and the dissenters, who have no intention of withdrawing, will continue to look for ways to undermine fundamental Church doctrines. VOTF was up to their necks in this assault as the excerpts from the article below indicate. Click on the headline for the full article.

Connecticut bill on Catholic Church nearly identical to Voice of the Faithful strategy

"The premise of the bill is remarkably similar to the 2009-2010 Voice of the Faithful Strategic Plan....

"Dr. Lakeland said, 'I’m connected to [the bill] to this degree: I’ve been working pretty closely with Tom Gallagher, who’s a Greenwich businessman, who has been behind the push to get the state government to do something about this.'... Asked if there would be implications for the entire U.S. Catholic Church, [Lakeland] confidently responded, 'Oh, I think it would, and I think if passed in Connecticut, the pressure to pass it in many of the other states in the union would be enormous.'”

Lakeland, a theology professor at Fairfield University, is closely involved with VOTF and espouses liberation theology, a philosophy Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (before being elevated to pope) said "constitutes a fundamental threat to the faith of the Church."

From start to finish this bill is an attack by the moles who remain in the Church in order to destroy her. They are of the same ilk as Doug Kmiec and the George Soros-funded organizations, Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Know these organizations and their minions for who they are -- enemies of Christ. Like the pharisees, they are looking for ways to "trip up" the legitimate authorities. They preach another gospel opposed to the one taught by Jesus. Do we need reform in the Church? Absolutely! Are these revolutionaries interested in reform? In a way, yes. They want to re-form the Church along the lines of the world. Read the devil's temptation of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 4 for their agenda. You'll hear it spouted by Satan.

The Plot Thickens in Connecticut

Seems that the bill introduced in Connecticut to put lay boards in charge of Catholic parishes has its roots in Voice of the Faithful. The Fratres blog and the National Catholic Register have interesting articles outlining the connection. For those who haven't kept up with VOTF, the group aims to democratize the Church along the lines of protestant denominations. You know -- lay election of pastors and bishops, lay control of parishes, ordination of women, etc. Like Rahm Emanuel VOTF believes in never wasting a crisis. Thus the sex abuse scandals are useful, not as a call to restore orthodoxy and fight dissent, but an opportunity to further undermine the faith of our fathers and bring the Church more into line with the vision of Martin Luther and his fellow revolutionaries.

Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, addressing a group of Catholic school principals, warned, "If this bill were to be enacted, your bishop, would have virtually, virtually no real relationship with the 87 parishes…they could go off independently, some of them could break off from the Church if they wished, and go their own way as has happened, for example, with the Episcopal Church. And the pastors would be figureheads, simply working for a board of trustees." The power of the purse is the power to control.

That's exactly why dissent groups like VOTF and Call to Action want laity to control Church finances. Unfortunately for them, Bill 1098 is unconstitutional on its face and the Connecticut bishops aren't their only adversaries. In an article on Courant.Com's Capitol Watch page, Senate Republican leader John McKinney is calling on democrats to cancel the hearings. "That bill is patently unconstitutional,'' McKinney said Monday. "I don't know any lawyer who would argue otherwise.'' McKinney, an Episcopalian, called the law "offensive to Catholics and non-Catholics alike."

I'm really interested in finding out more about Tom Gallagher, the "devout" Catholic who started all this. I found an article he wrote on Church finances in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), the Catholic dissenter's favorite mouthpiece. That doesn't necessarily disqualify his views, but it certainly puts him in the company of many who have attacked fundamental doctrines of the Church. Is he only concerned about financial accountability or does he share NCR's pro-abortion, pro-contraception, pro-same sex marriage, etc. views? Does he see Church finances as the lever and fulcrum to shift the Church toward the VOTF model? It's a possibility in search of supporting data.

Read more articles:

Catholic bishops angry over proposed lawDebate rages on church bill

Animosity continues over proposed church bill

Connecticut considers bill