So who owns the Church buildings anyway?
Posted by: tony on 08/09/2005 02:53 PM
Updated by: tony on 08/09/2005 03:02 PM
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Expires: 09/09/2005 12:00 AM
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I was poking around in JCecil3's blog, In Today's News, and I promised myself I'd look for something I could agree with him about. It took me a while, but I found this post regarding the lawsuits in Portland, Oregon. He writes:
In the face of hundreds of lawsuits regarding sex abuse, the archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, was the first diocese to file for bankruptcy protection last July.
In its bankruptcy petition, the archdiocese claims $400 million or more damages with only $19 million in listed assets.
This is interesting. Anyone with half a brain will figure out that the archdiocese is not claiming ownership of their properties. This is the opposite argument that the Church is giving regarding the ownership if St. Stanislaus Parish in St. Louis. Here is a letter from Archbishop Burke regarding the fact that the lay board needs to deed the property over to the archdiocese as requires by Canon law.
I have backed the archbishop on his request, and each of the steps he's taken from removing the priest and forbidding the sacraments in the church to the denial of the sacraments to the board members still obstinantly holding on to the property under civil law.
But, if the Church asserts that the parishes belong to the Church and not the parishioners, as the Vatican likely would want to do, then the $600 million assets are exposed to being sold off to pay for any failures of the bishop that created a legal liability.
The Church is damned if the parishioners own the parishes because it undermines legal principles going back to the days of Pope Gregory VII.
The Church is damned is the parishioners don't own the parishes because they then become exposed to the liability of the bishop for the sex abuse cases.
Unless I am misunderstanding the issues, the Church cannot win this one.
If I am to remain consistent, I will need to back up the assertion that the property belongs to the archdiocese, and they need to liquidate that to settle any civil penalties. It will hurt, but it will accomplish two things... 1) It will finally and forever settle the lawsuit without threat to the personal property of the parishioners. 2) It will anger the parishioners out of their complacency, and they'll demand that these priests be dealt with.
I believe that this is a persecution of the Catholic Church, and we may be persecuted right back to the catacombs (losing some of our churches). But Jesus said: "Blessed are they who are persecuted for my sake".
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