Kathleen Cei Photo

State Representative Mike Lawlor.

You probably saw the sea of proud Catholics standing up for separation of church and state last week.

They were old, young, rich, poor, standing in drizzle on the state capitol lawn to protest legislation that would have given lay Catholics — rather than priests — oversight of church finances.

You probably didn't see the scores of hateful e-mails — many written by self-proclaimed Catholics — attacking the state lawmakers who dared to schedule a public hearing on the church oversight bill. Or how one e-mailer threatened to kill them.

The State Capitol Police are investigating one e-mail that threatened physical harm to Rep. Mike Lawlor and Sen. Andrew McDonald and are seeking an arrest warrant for its author. The Capitol cops don't describe it as a death threat, but a source familiar with the e-mail says it is, and even uses the word "kill."

Capitol Police Chief Michael J. Fallon says the threat is serious. "General in nature, but specific enough that one would be placed in fear of physical injury," he says.

Connecticut's Catholic leaders claimed a big victory last week by beating back the church oversight bill before it even left the gates. Bishops and priests issued a call to arms at Sunday mass and whipped their flocks into a frenzy that culminated in 4,000 Catholics storming the state capitol last Wednesday to protest a bill that had already been shelved in response to the uproar.

It was supposed to be a fight over church sovereignty, but it quickly devolved into a gay-bashing bonanza and a platform for Catholics to blame two openly homosexual lawmakers for every setback their political agenda has suffered.

In just three days, Lawlor and McDonald were inundated with more than 10,000 e-mails and phone messages from all over the country, threatening and harassing them for even considering opening a dialogue of the topic.

Reading the e-mails, a few of which were provided to the Advocate, it's impossible not to see the church-oversight battle as a proxy war for the Catholics' biggest political setback: the legalization of gay marriage.

One self-described "Proud Catholic" wrote to McDonald: "I know that you have the fags (also known as the gay mafia, also known as the brownshits) in your back pocket and pushing this legislation so The Church can be silenced on gay marriage issues in your state," the e-mailer wrote. "It won't work. The people of Connecticut are going to ride you out of town on a rail!"

Lawlor and McDonald didn't even write the bill in question — all they did was agree to give it a hearing before the Judiciary Committee they co-chair. The bill was the brainchild of two devout Catholics — one an esteemed parishioner from Greenwich, the other the head of Catholic Studies at Fairfield University — who were outraged that priests had been able to embezzle millions from churches in Darien and Greenwich.

That hardly mattered to Catholic leaders, though, who used the controversy to stir up old anger about gay marriage, state funding for stem cell research, and a law that requires Catholic hospitals to offer plan B to rape victims.

Bridgeport Bishop William E. Lori actually celebrates the e-mail blitz on his blog, perhaps not knowing that some of the flock was making threats.

"So many of you called and e-mailed State Senator Andrew McDonald and State Representative Michael Lawlor and the members of the Judiciary Committee that the phone system at the State Capitol shut down and e-mail addresses of legislators were overwhelmed," Lori writes. "With all my heart, I thank you."

We asked a spokesman for Hartford Archbishop Henry Mansell whether Catholic leaders bear some responsibility for inciting their followers, but he did not return our call. Messages left with Bridgeport Bishop Lori and the head of the Connecticut Catholic Conference were also not returned.

Only one e-mail was deemed a credible threat by police, but plenty of them were hostile.

"The fact that you are a homosexual and are opposed to family values does not give you the right to attack the Catholic Church," one e-mailer wrote McDonald, before signing "Best Regards."

An e-mailer from Stamford, McDonald's hometown, wrote: "Your public hostility toward religion and your unbridled support of gay marriage (under the guise of "equal rights") is, in my opinion and the opinion of the majority of Connecticut voters, an abomination and a breach of natural law."

That's false. A majority of Connecticut voters told pollsters they were comfortable with gay marriage after the state Supreme Court ruled it legal last fall. But there remains a vocal minority.

Capitol cops have seen a "tremendous uptick in vile and nasty e-mails" directed at lawmakers, Chief Fallon says, and assessing the threat level of each can be tricky. Oftentimes a writer is just blowing off steam, but occasionally they cross the line — and that's what happened here. Fallon said the last time a threat was taken this seriously was a couple of months ago.

Last week's legislation would have let the government set rules for how local parishes manage their money — a legally murky proposition that the church called an assault on religion and the attorney general quickly branded unconstitutional. The law would have established boards of lay Catholics, elected by parishioners, to oversee church finances and made priests non-voting members of the board.

Fallon says the sender's e-mail was generic, but he obtained a court order to trace the address back to its source. He doesn't know if the sender was male or female, or even Catholic, but says the message did quote scripture.

"Free speech and holding elected officials accountable is one thing," Fallon says. "But when they're threatening to the family and children — nobody deserves that. We're working diligently to ID the sender."

Or the sender could save them the trouble and just confess.

abromage@newhavenadvocate.com