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An unholy row has broken out in New Zealand over a church billboard aimed at "challenging stereotypes" about the birth of Jesus Christ. A dejected-looking Joseph lies in bed next to Mary under the caption, "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow". St Matthew-in-the-City Church in Auckland, which erected the billboard, said it had intended to provoke debate. But the Catholic Church, among others, has condemned it as "inappropriate" and "disrespectful". Within hours of its unveiling, the billboard had been defaced with brown paint. The church's vicar, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy, said the aim of the billboard had been...

On Monday, Nov. 30, 2009, the “Vital Voice newspaper”, which claims to “provide a diverse and independent voice for the St. Louis Community”, ran a story by Colin Murphy entitled “Hundreds Protest Outside of St. Louis' Cathedral Basilica.” The story was an example of fringe homosexual advocacy that has as its goal a Cultural Revolution.... What occurred on the first Sunday in Advent in front of that Church will continue throughout Advent and perhaps beyond. It may become a regular experience for those who want to go to Mass to have to walk around protest signs. It may also spread...

...George Soros, an avowed atheist, has been channeling money to certain Catholic groups via his Open Society Institute. The groups receiving funds from Soros have been groups of progressive Catholics who have been on the forefront in the Obamacare debate and the debate on amnesty for illegal aliens.

The D.C. City Council took one step closer to allowing same sex "marriages" in the District of Columbia on Tuesday when they voted the legislation out of the Committee on Public Safety & Judiciary. The panel refused to include protections for religious organizations--putting at risk the numerous churches in the region that provide goods and services to the needy who would have to decide between their faith or compliance with the city's commands. One of the largest area provider of relief services, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, took a stand yesterday, just as their counterparts in Massachusetts's had done in...

Allison Kilkenny, a self-styled “political humorist,” ripped the Catholic Church on the Huffington Post on Thursday for threatening to pull the plug in its social services in Washington, DC if same-sex “marriage” is legalized there. Kilkenny labeled the Church the “Inexplicably Evil Organization Most Disconnected From Real People,” and bashed Pope Benedict XVI as a “decrepit former Nazi youth.” The “humorist” (pictured at right, courtesy of Wikimedia) began her screed, titled “Catholic Church Threatens to Stop Feeding Homeless Over Gay Marriage,” by comparing the Church to Goldman Sachs, and used her “evil” label only after three sentences (perhaps showing a...

One day after the White House contradicted an assertion by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that all current versions of the health-care bill permit funding of abortion, the Catholic bishops declared they would “vigorously” oppose the bill if it was not changed to include language to prohibit abortion funding. On Sept. 30, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which represents the approximately 300 active bishops in the United States, sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate in which the bishops said: “So far, the health reform bills considered in committee, including the new Senate Finance Committee...

The nation’s Catholic bishops have drawn a line in the sand over the Democrats’ refusal to include strong language excluding abortion from coverage under healthcare reform. The three key bishops heading up the church’s healthcare reform lobbying efforts ? Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia; Walter Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., and John Wester of Salt Lake City, Utah ? told Congress in a letter Thursday that the church has no choice but to oppose the healthcare reform legislation as it stands. Spurring their renewed opposition were committee defeats of several amendments that would have prevented abortion from being. On behalf...

This is a good news/bad news story. First the good news: The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) cut off all funding to ACORN at some point in 2008, after revelations of the embezzlement of nearly $1 million dollars by the brother of Wade Rathke, the founder of ACORN. What's not such great news is that the Catholic Church, through the CCHD, was funding ACORN in the first place. Catholic News Service (CNS) carried an article on October 16, 2008: CCHD ends funding to ACORN over financial irregularities. According to the article: ...CCHD funded more than 320 ACORN projects with...

"And not just atheists," said Bill Donohue during an August 31st Fox News interview. "I’m talking about people who are disaffected Catholics and Protestants who are mutineers within their own religion, trying to change things." It wasn't just "militant, dogmatic" atheists and "disaffected" Christians that the Catholic League president complained about either. Donohue also had a few choice words for magicians Penn & Teller whose Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!, just ran an episode on the history of the Catholic Church. "This was the most Nazi-like assault,” Donohue said. “The most unrelenting half an hour of bashing I’ve ever...

This heroic man stood up against the “gates of hell”, doing what all Bishops are supposed to do, guarding the flock of God against the wolves. The Bishop was correct to challenge the poor judgment of Misericordia University, a Catholic College in his Diocese which sponsored, through its scandalous “Diversity Institute”, an advocate/activist of the movement among some practicing homosexuals to obtain a legal equivalency between homosexual paramours and those who are married. ... ...His heroic defense of the dignity of every human life during the last Presidential campaign was inspired and refreshing! Some, even in the Catholic press, have...

Changes are coming to the Catholic English-speaking world in the form of a new translation of the Mass. The Roman Catholic liturgy, which has been said in English for over 30 years, will undergo a significant revision. English-speaking bishops will vote on final portions of the new translation in November. The translation will bring a new translation of the Mass to the United States, Canada, the U.K., Australia, and the rest of the English-speaking world. The book with the translation, known as the Sacramentary for the past 30 years, will be known again by its original name, the Roman Missal....

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) supports the proposed current health care reform provided it includes conscience protection clauses and specifically prohibits abortion funding. But although the USCCB has made statements about "respecting life from conception until natural death," the Conference fails to mention any specific concerns about health care rationing. The Catholic Church's opposition to euthanasia (an act just as evil as abortion) is clearly stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2277: Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally...

CatholicsComeHome.org was the brainchild of Arizonan Tom Peterson, who, according to the group’s website “while on a Catholic retreat in 1997… had a profound reversion experience.” Now Peterson speaks at Catholic and pro-life events around the country. Among those serving on his Theological Advisory Board are Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Scott Hahn, and Peter Kreeft. Three award-winning videos which have a 2008 copyright have now been made into a CD to share with others. The first, called “Epic,” details the contributions of the Catholic Church over the ages:...

The interior of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Kathmandu Rome, Italy, Jul 16, 2009 / 12:37 pm (CNA).- Following the recent bomb attack on the Cathedral of the Assumption, which was attributed to the Hindu group Nepal Defense Army, extremists are now threatening priests and religious in Nepal with death if they do not leave the country “within one month.” The Apostolic Vicar of Nepal, Bishop Anthony Francis Sharma, said the threats were made to the associate vicar, Father Pius Perumana.  L’Osservatore Romano reported that the police have beefed up security at the diocesan chancery in Godavari, where Father...

Today the much-anticipated social encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Truth in Love) was released, after being delayed for a year due to the global economic crisis. The encyclical includes several passages of great interest to those involved in the pro-life movement. The most pertinent and striking passages dealing with the life issues are reproduced below. To read the complete encyclical click here.

First, the lie is spread around with a press release headline: Ohio Catholic Priest Comes OUT as a Drag Queen with a Billboard Dance Hit. Then it builds with more sensationalism in the press release itself: "In celebration of Gay Pride Month, Big Mama Capretta reveals the surprise truth about her identity. By day, Capretta is none other than Father Anthony, a proud practicing Catholic priest from Columbus, Ohio! Big Mama Capretta's new hit single 'Big Mama's House' is currently #25 on the U.S. Billboard Club Play dance chart." Next, the Advocate, an "award-winning LGBT news site", basically copies down...

A hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 16, in an appeal by the Archdiocese of San Francisco of an attempt by the City and County of San Francisco to levy up to $15 million in property taxes against the archdiocese. A three-member board made up of the city treasurer, the city controller and the head of the city’s real estate division will hear the archdiocese’s appeal. Two of the three appeals board members – Treasurer Jose Cisneros and Real Estate Division head Amy L. Brown – have been active supporters of same-sex marriage. Cisneros is a member of the...

WASHINGTON —Speaking on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, expressed profound regret upon learning of the shooting death of abortion doctor George Tiller. "Our bishops' conference and all its members have repeatedly and publicly denounced all forms of violence in our society, including abortion as well as the misguided resort to violence by anyone opposed to abortion," Cardinal Rigali said. "Such killing is the opposite of everything we stand for, and everything we want our culture to stand for: respect for the life of each...

A popular U.S. Roman Catholic priest photographed frolicking with a woman on a Florida beach announced Thursday he had joined the Episcopal Church to pursue the priesthood in a faith that allows married clergy. "I've seen with my own eyes how many brothers of mine serve God as married men and with the blessing of having their own families," said Father Alberto Cutie, whose removal from his Miami Beach parish prompted public debate about the Catholic Church's celibacy requirement for priests. The charismatic 40-year-old is a well-known religious leader in Miami who dispensed relationship advice on Spanish-language television shows, church...

A reporter for a small newspaper was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One shortly before President Barack Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to depart California early Thursday. Airport security officers carried the woman away by the feet and arms as she protested her removal. She later identified herself as Brenda Lee, a writer for the Georgia Informer in Macon and said she has White House press credentials. The newspaper's Web site says it is monthly publication a Brenda Lee column is posted on it. Calls to the newspaper and the White House press office...

The newspaper published by the Vatican, L’Osservatore Romano, has created more than a little mischief recently, featuring essays by ill-informed European journalists who imagine that they understand American history, the American political scene, and the grave moral issues being contested in these United States. Pro-administration American journalists and activists have leaped with barely concealed glee on several unfortunate articles in this genre, claiming that they demonstrate that “the Vatican” believes the U.S. Catholic bishops overreacted to Notre Dame’s award of an honorary doctorate of laws to President Obama, and that “the Vatican” is taking a wait-and-see, so-far-so-good attitude toward Obama...

DUBLIN – A fiercely debated, long-delayed investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades — and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation. Nine years in the making, Wednesday's 2,600-page report sides almost completely with the horrific reports of abuse from former students sent to more than 250 church-run, mostly residential institutions. It concluded that church officials always shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest to protect their own reputations and, according to documents uncovered in the Vatican, knew that many pedophiles were serial...

DUBLIN — A fiercely debated, nine-year investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades — and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation. High Court Justice Sean Ryan on Wednesday unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse, which is based on testimony from thousands of former students and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families — a category that often included unmarried mothers...

Managua, Nicaragua, May 18, 2009 / 12:59 pm (CNA).- The president of the Latin American Bishops’ Council (CELAM), Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno, said during a press conference last week that celibacy “is not up for debate” at CELAM’s 32nd assembly nor “in the Church in general.” The archbishop made his comments in the wake of the questions raised about celibacy by Father Alberto Cutie of Miami, who has been romantically involved with a woman. He told reporters that celibacy “is not up for debate at this assembly nor in the Church in general, and so the priest who is ordained also...

Father Alberto Cutié appeared on CBS this morning to defend his actions and discuss the Catholic Church's celibacy policy. "This is someone who I love," he says.

PHOENIX, Arizona, May 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An openly homosexual Roman Catholic priest of the diocese of Phoenix, who once endorsed a pornographic film entitled "Naked Boys Singing" for a homosexualist paper, has been excommunicated by Bishop Thomas Olmsted.The excommunication of Fr. Chris Carpenter, who has long been publicly opposed to the Church's condemnation of active homosexuality, was issued last month but only made public on Monday.  After Bishop Olmsted repeatedly chastised him for his homosexual activism, Carpenter precipitated the excommunication by joining the "Reformed Catholic Church," an offshoot religious group that endorses homosexuality, homosexual priests, and women priests. While Carpenter...

In the seven weeks since Notre Dame announced President Barack Obama as its 2009 Commencement speaker, the campus has seen prayer gatherings, academic debates, banner-flying planes and bloodied baby dolls in strollers. Now, with a week and a half to go until Obama lands in South Bend to address the graduating class, another group has arrived in town to demand Notre Dame be stripped of its Catholic identity.It's really been quite the month and a half. I spent the entire day stuck in the library studying for exams, but luckily the South Bend Tribune was on the scene Tuesday to...

Tom Hanks, who plays the character Robert Langdon in the controversial new film Angels & Demons, has described the plot as “playing fast and loose with the truth”. The plot of the film sees a secret society known as the Illuminati try to destroy the Vatican in order to take revenge for a massacre against its members by the Catholic Church. The film is the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, which claimed that the Church covered up Jesus’ secret marriage to Mary Magdalene. Leaders within the Catholic Church have already condemned the film as offensive to Catholics. The Catholic...

ROME (Reuters) - Director Ron Howard accused the Vatican on Sunday of trying to hamper the filming and the Rome roll-out of his new movie "Angels & Demons," and challenged Catholic critics to see the film before condemning it. The movie sequel to author Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" will premiere in Rome on Monday, with fictional symbologist Robert Langdon returning to the big screen to help the Vatican rescue kidnapped cardinals and find a ticking time-bomb. The Vatican was outraged by "The Da Vinci Code" and the Rome archdiocese made no secret about denying Howard authorization to film...

GREAT FALLS - Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Warfel of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings has joined dozens of Catholic bishops nationwide in criticizing Notre Dame University for inviting President Barack Obama to speak to graduates. Notre Dame invited the president to give this year's commencement address on May 17 and receive an honorary law degree. Warfel became the 57th Roman Catholic bishop who, as of Friday, had gone on record against the invitation because of the president's support of abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research. The Obama invitation sends a "shamefully ambiguous message" about Notre Dame's fidelity to church teachings,...

This coming week, Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Fla., will take the unusual step of celebrating a Mass of Reparation, to make amends for sins against God. The motivation: to provide an outlet for Catholics upset with what Wenski calls the University of Notre Dame's "clueless" decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak at its commencement and receive an honorary doctorate May 17. The nation's flagship Catholic university's honoring of a politician whose abortion rights record clashes with a fundamental church teaching has triggered a reaction among the nation's Catholic bishops that is remarkable...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The ordination Class of 2009, with computer experts, refugees, marathon runners and second-career men, mirrors the United States today. The men from dioceses nationwide show that the call to serve God is heard at all ages. Respondents include attorneys, financiers, teachers and farmers.

Guadalajara, Mexico, Apr 20, 2009 (CNA) -- Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara in Mexico has rejected attempts by feminist organizations to intimidate the Church into ceasing its defense of the unborn's right to life, and has said he will continue speaking out against abortion. Feminist organizations, irritated by pro-life victories in several Mexican states, have launched a campaign suggesting that, by speaking out against abortion, the bishops of Mexico are “meddling in politics” and violating the country’s constitution. “The right to life will be defended at all costs and this is not meddling in the politics of the state,”...

Director Ron Howard on Tuesday defended his film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown 's "Angels & Demons" from criticism that it smears the Roman Catholic Church, heightening an ongoing battle over fictional depictions of the Vatican. Howard, who also directed the 2006 movie adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code," posted a blog at The Huffington Post website saying that neither he nor his new movie "Angels & Demons," which debuts in May and stars Tom Hanks, are anti-Catholic. "And let me be a little controversial: I believe Catholics, including most in the hierarchy of the Church...

Apparently there is only room for one Messiah in America and it ain’t Yeshua Náẓərat (Jesus of Nazareth). President Obama is now preaching the gospel of polytheistic relativism wherever he goes. According to Obama your vote for him was a vote against Jesus Christ and since he is now president the United States, the United States is officially a nation of many religions that is bound by no one religion.

Hours before Easter services were to commence, a vandal or vandals decapitated a statue of the Blessed Virgin outside Santa Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica, the parish where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, are members. “As many of you know or may have noticed, our statue of the Blessed Mother at the corner of 7th and California was vandalized, and is currently covered,” the church’s pastor, Msgr. Lloyd Torgerson, said in a message to parishioners posted on the parish’s web site. “It was an unfortunate and sad occurrence, and questions remain as to why someone would...

South Bend, Ind., Apr 14, 2009 / 06:36 pm (CNA).- Fr. John Jenkins, the President of the University of Notre Dame, has written a letter to the school's board of trustees, defending the university’s invitation of President Obama to the school’s May commencement ceremony. Fr. Jenkins argues in his letter that while many have criticized the school’s move, canon lawyers and the USCCB document, “Catholics in Political Life,” both support his action. In the letter, posted in full on LifeSiteNews, Fr. Jenkins recalls the June 2004 USCCB statement on Catholics in political life and cites “two key sentences” that “have...

Washington, D.C., Apr 13, 2009 / (CNA) -- The Catholic Church has welcomed another high profile politician into the fold -- former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. According to press reports, Gingrich, who spent most of his life as a Baptist, attended an evening Mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, March 29, and received the Sacrament of Confirmation the same evening. Gingrich, who has had two well-documented divorces outside the Catholic Church, recently appeared on Fox News to discuss North Korea, but also spoke briefly about his conversion. The conservative leader said that “reading...

Mexico City, Mexico (CNA) -- Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico City, has issued a warning about the “terrorist” nature of the call for a “holy war” against the Catholic Church by the leader of followers of Santa Muerte -- “St. Death.” David Romo Guillen, leader of the devotion to “St. Death,” especially popular among drug traffickers and criminals, called for a “holy war” against the Catholic Church after the Mexican Army destroyed several places of worship it suspected to be criminal hideouts, especially in the northern part of the country, including one shrine to Santa Muerte...

Citing a U.S. State Department travel advisory, Bishop Tod Brown of the Diocese of Orange has forbidden all church-related groups under his jurisdiction from traveling to Mexico. A March 3 memo from diocesan risk management director Michael J. Shaffer addressed to “Pastors, Administrators, Parochial Vicars, Principals, Parish/School Business Managers, Youth Ministers, Hispanic Coordinators” says Bishop Brown has decided to prohibit travel into Mexico until further notice. The memo cites a Feb. 20, 2009 State Department “travel alert” regarding travel into Mexico, which says, in part: “Mexican drug cartels are engaged in an increasingly violent conflict -- both among themselves and...

By inviting Barack Obama to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree at Notre Dame, the Rev. John Jenkins has polarized the Catholic community nationwide – and raised a question. What does it mean to be a Catholic university in post-Christian America? Are there truths about faith and morality that are closed to debate at Notre Dame? Or is Notre Dame like London's Hyde Park, where all ideas and all advocates get a hearing? To Catholics, abortion is the killing of an unborn child, a premeditated breach of God's Commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill." The case is closed...

March 26, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Don’t Know NothingA frontal attack on the Catholic Church aims at religious liberty in general. By Father Thomas Berg & Michael Augros ‘Catholics and Catholicism are at the receiving end of a great deal of startling vituperation in contemporary America, although generally those responsible never think of themselves as bigots.� With these words, the historian Philip Jenkins opened his 2003 study entitled The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice. Mr. Jenkins might well consider it time to produce an updated edition. In it, he might ponder whether the recent renewal of anti-Catholic politicking is...

South Bend, IN -- That the University of Notre Dame has extended an invitation to pro-abortion President Barack Obama to give its commencement address to and to receive an honorary degree has sparked outrage. Obama is slated to speak at Notre Dame's commencement on May 17. Hundreds of thousands of pro-life advocates have contacted Notre Dame officials expressing their disappointment and pro-life groups have condemned its decision, but one group is going further. The National Right to Life Committee has asked the Catholic college to rescind the invitation.

When he first heard about a Vatican-sponsored course on exorcism for priests, journalist Matt Baglio was intrigued by the idea of this ancient ritual taking place in the modern world. In his new book, The Rite, Baglio follows American priest Father Gary — sent to Rome to train as an exorcist — and his apprenticeship with Father Carmine. Baglio talked to TIME about belief, skeptical priests and the particulars of the exorcism ritual.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — An influential prelate said Brazilian doctors didn't deserve excommunication for aborting the twin fetuses of a 9-year-old child who was allegedly raped by her stepfather because the doctors were saving her life. The statement by Archbishop Rino Fisichella in the Vatican newspaper Sunday was highly unusual because church law mandates automatic excommunication for abortion. Fisichella, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, also upheld the church's ban on abortion and any implications of his criticism of excommunicating the doctors and the girl's mother weren't clear.

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — The bishop's threat was almost incomprehensible. In this heavily Roman Catholic city, where tens of thousands of people pack downtown for the annual St. Patrick's parade, Mass would be canceled that day if organizers honored an abortion-rights supporter. The warning — seen by some as a reference to Vice President Joe Biden, a native son — was the latest in a series of tough stands by Bishop Joseph Martino, who is establishing himself as one of the nation's most outspoken defenders of Catholic orthodoxy. Supporters say he is simply enforcing church teachings to counter "cafeteria Catholics,"...

Hartford, Conn. (CNA) -- Following a deluge of phone calls and emails, a bill introduced in the Connecticut Senate to reorganize the financial and pastoral structure of the Catholic Church has been pulled and tabled for the rest of the legislative session. Meanwhile, state Sen. Andrew MacDonald and state Rep. Michael Lawlor, the sponsors of the bill, have sent it to the state attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, to determine if it passes constitutional muster. The two lawmakers also canceled a hearing on the bill. Despite the bill being pulled, the Diocese of Bridgeport is telling its members that the bill...

The bill that would allow the state legislature in Connecticut to reconfigure the governing structure of the Catholic Church has been pulled. Introduced by Rep. Michael Lawlor and Sen. Andrew McDonald, the bill was withdrawn at the behest of the person who proposed it, Tom Gallagher; he is a contributor to the National Catholic Reporter, a left-wing Catholic newspaper. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal will now review the constitutionality of the bill. Catholic League president Bill Donohue responded as follows: “Every pre-law undergraduate knows that what Lawlor and McDonald tried to pull off—in stealth fashion—was flagrantly unconstitutional. For their fascist stunt,...

M-F 5:00-6:00 PM (EST) 4-5PM CST 3-4PM MST 2-3PM PST Office bound? Click here and watch Glenn live online! In Connecticut, the state is trying to insert itself in the business of the Catholic Church. Whether you're Catholic or not makes no difference - God is under attack and an amazing shot has been fired in Connecticut. We'll tell you about that and why it matters, tonight at 5:00pm on the Fox News Channel.

Following the biggest political firestorm of the 2009 legislative session, a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday on the financial and administrative management of the Catholic Church has been canceled. The bill is dead for the rest of the legislative session.... The cancellation came less than 24 hours after Senate Republican John McKinney of Fairfield called for the cancellation, saying that his caucus was unanimously against the bill because they believe it is clearly unconstitutional. The Democratic co-chairs of the legislature's judiciary committee, Rep. Michael P. Lawlor of East Haven and Sen. Andrew McDonald of Stamford, just released the following statement:...