Church Under Attack in Connecticut

1. What in the world is going on in Connecticut? Their legislature is holding a hearing this week on a blatantly anti-Catholic bill that seeks to strip the bishop and the pastor of their authority to govern the parishes. The bill's sponsors dishonestly say that it's intended to look at misappropriation of money by religious institutions (not by the CT government, with its billion dollar deficit and a record of political corruption by governors and legislative leaders that would make New Jersey blush). But -- surprise, surprise! -- it only addresses the structure of Catholic parishes. The Church in Connecticut is mobilizing to defeat this unconstitutional outrage. If you know anyone in CT, please contact them and direct them to the CT Catholic Conference website.

2. In a not-unrelated item, a new survey of religion notes that the Catholic population of New England has plummeted.

3. The 100% anti-life President is going to overturn the previous Administration's limits on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, despite his earlier promise that he would leave the issue up to Congress. However, he's apparently going to leave it up to Congress to repeal the prohibition against creating embryos for the purpose of destroying them in experiments. So, we're now moving towards a regime where human life at its earliest stage is not just "spare parts" for others, but is a commodity to be produced and destroyed. But remember what the Catholic quislings were telling us during the election: the President's really more pro-life than the other guy would have been. Really.

4. We now know a little more about the young lady who wrote the piece for the National "Catholic" Reporter claiming to be a "pro-choice Catholic". She's not just an advocate for legally killing children, ordaining women, and for the full menu of Call to Action nonsense, she's also "married" to her female "partner" and told the full story in her NCR column. (I will not link directly to her column because it would be leading others into sin). So she is the very model of a very modern "Catholic" -- she does not hold steadfastly to the teaching of the Apostles, she openly and notoriously lives in an objectively immoral manner, and she tries to lead others to join her in separating from Catholic faith and life. And the best part is that she's published by a newspaper that arrives regularly on the doorstep of Catholic parishes, schools, convents, and homes. I'm going to post about this situation today at my ArchNY blog, particularly about how it relates to the proper formation of conscience.

5. Interesting column in the Wall Street Journal asking the question whether the JP II Generation will welcome the new Archbishop of New York. I'll bet that the answer will be "yes".

6. And finally, as Easter approaches, law enforcement authorities in New Jersey are considering the earth-shattering question of whether an attack on an inflatable Easter bunny is an anti-religious hate crime. Dare we say that the attacker may have been egged on? Sorry.