This newsletter is a summary of various church, state and national news
items of interest to Catholics throughout Connecticut. The newsletter is
produced by the Connecticut Catholic Conference.

CATHOLIC AWARENESS DAY HELD ON MARCH 6th

A group of approximately 150 people met at the State Capitol to participate in several workshops and meet with legislators. The Catholic Bishops of Connecticut spoke on three topics of importance and replied to questions from the press. Below are higlights of those statements.

Archbishop Henry Mansell - Immigration
Archdiocese of Hartford

Bishop William Lori - Earned Income Tax Credit
Diocese of Bridgeport

Bishop Michael Cote - Counseling for Teen Abortions
Diocese of Norwich

CATHOLIC CONFERNCE LEGISLATIVE ISSUES UPDATE
The 2008 session is a short session, ending on May 7th. Extensive legislation on non-budgetary items is not expected.

A. Earned Income Tax Credit - The Conference supports for this legislation. Widely supported by Democrats, but opposed by Republicans and the Governor. The Human Services Committee has voted to support S.B. 163. The bill is now being considered by the Finance Committee.

B. Parental Notification of a Minor's Abortion - No specific legislation on parental notification will be raised this session. However, following a successful informational hearing last year before the Select Committee on Children, legislation has been voted out of the Select Committee on Children, with bipartisan support, to raise the existing age for a minor to have counseling before an abortion from under 16 years of age to under 18 years of age. (H.B. 5499 An Act Concerning The Required Age For Counseling) The Conference will support this legislation as an incremental step in assisting minors. Concerns remain that the counseling is done by the abortion provider and parents are still not required to be notified.

C. Health Care Reform
1. Support expansion of health care coverage to the uninsured.
2. Support expansion of the Money Follows the Person Program
Significant legislative activity is not expected in the area of universal health care coverage this session. However, a bill (S.B. 561) to expand the Money Follows the Person program has been raised in Human Services.

D. Housing - Support housing initiatives that provide more affordable and supportive housing in Connecticut. An increase in supportive housing was not included in the Governor's budget. There appears to be a small increase for aid to create affordable housing units. Advocates of supportive housing, which includes the Conference, are seeking 650 new units of supportive housing this fiscal year. There are many bills on this issue. The final determination will be made by the Appropriations Committee.

E. Immigration - The Conference is attempting to address the situation of abused women and children in undocumented families. These women and children are fearful to report this abuse due to their undocumented status. The Conference is pursuing a study group to review domestic violence issues within the immigrant community. Several meetings have been held with other concerned groups and legislators. No specific legislation has yet been presented. The Conference will also oppose any legislation harmful to immigrants.

F. Sex Education and Teen Pregnancy Prevention - Two bills have been raised related to teen sexual education in public schools. Both pieces of legislation are almost identical and severely flawed. The bills would both allocate $1 million dollars to local school boards to increase the teaching of comprehensive sex education, without any clear indication that sexuality education is not already occurring in our schools.. The Conference believes abstinence education should be the primary focus of any sexuality education program. The current language on the bill would also allow the money to pass-through the local boards of education to organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, to teach programs in our public schools. Planned Parenthood is the primary sponsor of this legislation. Without major revisions both of these pieces of legislation should be defeated. These bills are:
H.B. 5591- An Act Concerning Healthy Teens (Education Committee)
S.B. 461 - An Act Concerning Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Programs (Public Health Committee)
These bills have had public hearings and are awaiting committee votes.

G. Environmental Justice - The Office of Urban Affairs of the Archdiocese of Hartford, with the support of the Catholic Conference, is urging passage of legislation that will require the state and towns to consider the existing locations of power plants and trash facilities before authorizing new construction. Too often these pollution emitting facilities are located in the same geographical areas and effect lower income people. These bills are:
H.B. 5145- An Act Concerning Environmentally Stressed and
Environmental Justice Communities (Environment Committee)
S.B. 118 - An Act Concerning Environmental Justice
(Energy and Technology Committee)

H. Open Adoption Records - The Conference will continue to oppose efforts for adopted children to obtain birth parent information, if the legislation is retroactive and does not require consent of the birth mother. Most states do not allow this information to be given to adopted children. The privacy of the birth mother is of major concern. The only true method of privacy when dealing with an unplanned pregnancy would be abortion, if this legislation was adopted. The Conference worked to defeat this legislation in past years. Legislation has been raised in the Select Committee on Children (S.B. 345) and is expected to be voted on very soon.

Issues being monitored -

A. Same-sex Marriage - activity on this issue will vary based on the outcome of the Connecticut Supreme Court decision.
1. Court rules against same-sex marriage - Supporters of same-sex marriage have publicly stated they will launch a strong lobbying effort in 2008 to have the legislature adopt same-sex marriage. The Conference will have to strongly lobby against this effort.
2. Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage - In November of 2008 a question will appear on the ballots in the state asking if a constitutional convention should be called for modifying the State Constitution. Urge people to vote "yes" on this question. This will open up options for dealing with this issue in the Constitution. Also, lobby for legislation clearly granting conscious protection to religious organizations and individuals.


B. Gender Identity - This legislation grants legal protections for transsexuals. Last session the Conference had an exemption for religious organizations placed into the bill. The legislation died in the House. A similar bill (H.B. 5723) has been raised in the Judiciary Committee this year. The Conference will seek the same protection this year.

C. Statutes of Limitation for Sexual Abuse - The Conference will oppose legislation that would extend the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases from 30 years to 40 years. This could potentially have the church defending it self against cases occurring back in the late 1950's. In most of these cases the priest and many witnesses would be dead, making a defense nearly impossible. Last year proposed legislation was killed in the Judiciary Committee. No legislation has yet been raised during this session.

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