Australia is looking into requiring Catholic priests to break the seal of confession in cases of serious sex offenses. The Irish government was discussing this very thing recently.
Obviously, this kind of thing is more than distressing to most Catholics. But governmental intrusion into Church affairs is nothing new.
But there’s been a lot of talk recently that Catholics should have no concerns whatsoever with marriage becoming a civil right because the separation of Church and state will protect us.
Ironically, those who scream loudest about the separation of church and state can sometimes be its most vociferous opponents. Fairfield University religious studies professor Paul Lakeland recently argued that one can be in favor of civil gay marriage while being against sacramental gay marriage. He said state sanctioned marriage has nothing to do with the sacrament of marriage and that the bishops have no more authority than you or me when they voice their opinion on civil marriage because they are speaking about a state issue.
Yet this very same professor also supported legislation in Connecticut that would have forcibly placed parish finances under the control of elected lay boards.
You see, separation of Church and state is not only a one-way street, it’s been weaponized and aimed directly at the Church.