A church finance bill?

The very nomenclature sounds archaic. A "church finance bill" in the legislature of one of the states of the United States?

And my state, at that?

But there it is ... Senate bill 1098. Dropped into the hopper earlier this month.

AN ACT MODIFYING CORPORATE LAWS RELATING TO CERTAIN RELIGIOUS CORPORATIONS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Section 33-279 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2009):

(a) A corporation may be organized in connection with any Roman Catholic Church or congregation in this state, by filing in the office of the Secretary of the State a certificate signed by the archbishop or bishop and the vicar-general of the archdiocese or of the diocese in which such congregation is located and the pastor and two laymen belonging to such congregation, stating that they have so organized for the purposes hereinafter mentioned.


That's how it begins. But of course the point of the bill wasn't to require that certain paperwork be placed in the hands of the Secretary of State. The point was to make sure that the "lay members of the congregation" rather than the clergy have control over finances.

The bill -- now withdrawn after a brief and intense publicity storm -- would have mandated that the "administrative and financial powers" of a diocese be subject to a board of directors, which would have to have a minimum of seven members, more than half of whom lay members.

To be fair, there was also a subsection with this language "Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit, restrict or derogate from any power, right, authority, duty or responsibility of the bishop or pastor in matters pertaining exclusively to religious tenets and practices."

But body and spirit in this life are awfully (awefully) intertwined. This looks like a power grab.

The bill has died a quick death, but that it was even considered in this era leaves me astonished and forces meditation about what kind of era this is.