Connecticut's Catholic Church today rallied in opposition to a proposed bill — which apparently has now been hastily tabled indefinitely — that would have given Catholic parishioners the option of severing themselves from the administrative oversight of their pastor and bishop.
Legal experts seem to agree that the bill didn't have a constitutional chance of a snowball in Hades — not only does it exclusively target the Catholic Church, it seems a clear violation of the First Amendment's separation of church and state.
Still, it was an astonishingly brazen display of anti-Catholicism that has historical precedent in the Know Nothing movement in the mid-19th century. (Check back here tomorrow for a fuller post on that from an expert in the history of U.S. anti-Catholicism.)
The Diocese of Bridgeport has created a page with a wealth of information on this at its website. Check it out here.
