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	Catholics Shouldn't Blame McDonald, Lawlor for Accountability Effort Hartford Courant March 11, 2009 http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-catholic-finance-bill.art.artmar11,0,1233942.story State Sen. Andrew McDonald and Rep. Michael Lawlor were not trying to drive Roman Catholics back to the catacombs, pull a "fascist stunt" (as one critic said) or muzzle the church on gay marriage or birth control. They actually were trying to help rank-and-file Catholics. But the way they went about it was ill-advised. They are wisely choosing another tack. Mr. McDonald and Mr. Lawlor, co-chairmen of the General Assembly's Judiciary Committee, recently introduced a bill that would take administrative and fiscal power away from priests and bishops and give it to parishioners. They said they offered the bill at the request of constituents who were upset by cases of financial impropriety at Fairfield County churches. But on Tuesday, after a loud and angry response from many Catholics, the two lawmakers shelved the bill, canceled its public hearing and asked the attorney general to study the constitutionality of corporate laws on the books regarding religion. In retrospect, this would have been the way to handle the issue in the first place. A new law isn't the answer to every problem. Fiscal oversight is clearly a concern at some Catholic churches. A priest began serving a three-year prison sentence last fall for stealing $1.3 million from a Darien parish to bankroll a Florida condo and other lavish amenities. A pastor in Greenwich resigned in 2007 after an audit could not account for $400,000 in parish funds. A survey by researchers at Villanova University released in 2007 found that 85 percent of Roman Catholic dioceses that responded had discovered embezzlement of church money in the past five years, with 11 percent reporting that more than $500,000 had been stolen. But to what level is this a problem for the state? Christ told his followers to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. But is there an obligation to open the books, too? Churches enjoy a singular status, thanks to the First Amendment. The Catholic Church is a hierarchy, and traditionally a secretive one, headed by the pope and including bishops and priests. The church is free to govern itself this way. Would a legislatively mandated shift to lay management violate this freedom and the broad principle of separation of church and state? It is a question deserving of serious thought and discussion. Trying to have such a dialogue in the current contentious atmosphere, however, is unlikely. Many Catholics, including some clerics, have been less than charitable in their responses to what was at least a well-intended idea from Mr. McDonald and Mr. Lawlor. If nothing else, this brouhaha has revealed an anachronistic mishmash of corporate-governance laws for individual religions; separate laws for Catholics, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. A serious study of these should result in a uniform state law for religious entities. That should be the next step. And since Mr. McDonald and Mr. Lawlor have withdrawn this bill, all legislators ought to let it rest in peace and focus on the more pressing fiscal crisis.
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