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This week's fight for religious freedom in Connecticut

The Knights of Columbus stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Catholic bishops and priests of Connecticut this week, and won a significant battle with opponents of the Church. But more battles probably lie ahead.

(March 13, 2009) - When the Connecticut senate and house co-chairmen of the Judiciary Committee introduced Bill 1098 on March 5, they apparently hoped few would notice until it was too late. The measure proposed to strip the bishops and priests of the state of all administrative authority over their own churches, a blatantly unconstitutional intervention in the internal affairs of a church. The Knights of Columbus quickly joined the bishops and the Connecticut Catholic Conference in a public condemnation of the bill. The bill's sponsors were taken by surprise, and cancelled a planned Wednesday hearing. But some 5,000 Catholics from all around the state came to Hartford for a protest rally at noon on March 11, when the hearing had originally been scheduled to begin.

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson delivered a strongly worded speech, along with Archbishop Henry Mansell, Bishop (and Supreme Chaplain) William Lori, and Bishop Michael Cote. You can watch the video of the speeches by going to this web page:

http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/officers/media/videos/ctrally.html

You can read more about the rally and the controversy here:

http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/news/legislative/detail/548363.html

Read the Supreme Knight's op-ed column in the Stamford Advocate here:

Send comments or questions to the web page editor, @yahoo.com


	This week's fight for religious freedom in Connecticut The Knights of Columbus stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Catholic bishops and priests of Connecticut this week, and won a significant battle with opponents of the Church. But more battles probably lie ahead. (March 13, 2009) - When the Connecticut senate and house co-chairmen of the Judiciary Committee introduced Bill 1098 on March 5, they apparently hoped few would notice until it was too late. The measure proposed to strip the bishops and priests of the state of all administrative authority over their own churches, a blatantly unconstitutional intervention in the internal affairs of a church. The Knights of Columbus quickly joined the bishops and the Connecticut Catholic Conference in a public condemnation of the bill. The bill's sponsors were taken by surprise, and cancelled a planned Wednesday hearing. But some 5,000 Catholics from all around the state came to Hartford for a protest rally at noon on March 11, when the hearing had originally been scheduled to begin. Supreme Knight Carl Anderson delivered a strongly worded speech, along with Archbishop Henry Mansell, Bishop (and Supreme Chaplain) William Lori, and Bishop Michael Cote. You can watch the video of the speeches by going to this web page: http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/officers/media/videos/ctrally.html You can read more about the rally and the controversy here: http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/news/legislative/detail/548363.html Read the Supreme Knight's op-ed column in the Stamford Advocate here:

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