“Individual’s donations are to the Catholic Church, and the state would have to impose some arbitrary percent that the state would determine as Maine’s percent of the Catholic Church.”
The entity is a not for profit corporation called “Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland”. It is a “corporation sole” (no pun intended, its a common law corporate form), rather like a single member LLC, where the corporation is fully embodied in the person of the current bishop of Portland. That, padre, is what would lose its 501(c)(3) status if this homosexual group prevails, which I am confident it won’t.
I’m sure there are reasons for organizing a corporation that way, but I always thought it was ONE universal church.
Guess I was wrong.
Suppose that the entity called "Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland" were to be stripped of its tax exempt status? What would stop it from selling all its assets to another Roman Catholic Church for a dollar and then starting a new tax exempt entity called "Roman Catholic Church of Portland II" and then having the other church donate all the old entities assets to the new entity or sell them back for a dollar?