BishopAccountability.org
	Open Invitation Waterbury Republican-American July 5, 2009 http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2009/07/05/opinion/423637.txt The Office of State Ethics had no choice but to abandon its crusade against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport. A no-nonsense opinion last week from Attorney General Richard Blumenthal made it clear the panel was dabbling in unconstitutional suppression of speech and religious practice. It may be coincidental, but it does seem state government has had it in for the Catholic Church this year. First, Judiciary Committee co-chairmen Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, and Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, sought to order parishes and the church hierarchy to defer some of their financial-management power to boards comprised of lay people. After the Bridgeport diocese helped orchestrate a demonstration at the Capitol against the measure, the ethics office investigated whether the diocese violated lobbying rules. Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court ruled in May for the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking release of thousands of pages of documents related to sexual-abuse claims against priests that had been settled several years ago. This environment is not conducive to the church's religious, educational and charitable missions. Mr. Blumenthal's opinion on the ethics investigation was helpful in an immediate sense, but he left the door ajar to further mischief by legislators who deplore the church's antipathy to such liberal shibboleths as same-sex marriage and unrestricted abortion. The attorney general repeatedly warned against enacting measures that could be construed as suppressing First Amendment freedoms, but he noted the investigation into the Bridgeport diocese's lobbying activities should be abandoned "... unless and until the legislature clarifies or revises the statute to address such constitutional concerns" (our emphasis). Notwithstanding Mr. Blumenthal's clear expression of skepticism that such laws have a chance of passing muster in court, there are lawmakers and people in the permanent government who will interpret this as an invitation to keep up the campaign against the church.
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