Protest over church finance bill

Bridgeport (WTNH) - The formal hearing has been cancelled, but hundreds of Catholics are still going to the state capitol this morning to speak against a proposal that would have changed the way parish finances are handled.

Folks are still going to board buses and go to Hartford to make their voices heard, but they are not going to an official public hearing on a bill. That hearing has been cancelled, the bill tabled for the rest of the session by the chairmen of the Judiciary Committee.

The bill would have reorganized how Catholic churches are run. It all got started with a priest who stole more than a million dollars from his parish in Darien.

In 2007, Father Michael Jude Fay admitted he stole perhaps as much as $1.4 million from Saint John Roman Catholic Church. He was able to because each priest is basically in charge of all the finances in his church.

Several state lawmakers say they were asked by catholics in Fairfield County to work on a bill that would create a board of directors for each church.

A lot of Catholics don't like the idea. There was a plan to bring a dozen busloads of parishioners from Fairfield County up to the capitol for the bill's public hearing. but now the official hearing has been cancelled and the attorney general is looking into whether the bill is even constitutional.

The New Haven Register reports some Republicans will still hold their own unofficial hearing on the bill and folks will still head to Hartford for a Noon protest rally.