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To: beancounter13
All Catholic churches that fall under the umbrella of the Catholic Church are owned by the Bishop of the Diocese, or his successor in office. The property is owned by the person holding the office. Not even the Diocese owns the property.

That's not accurate. First of all, there are overlapping jurisdictions, so a parish could be, e.g., Easterm Rite or Anglican Use and have no relationship except that of cordiality with the local Latin Rite bishop.

Second, while IANAL, I understand that in most cases in the US, the diocese is essentially a sole proprietorship-with-right-of-succession. It is a corporation, and its properties, including parish physical plants, are owned by the corporation.

This is not required by canon law, and in fact a lot of dioceses are getting away from it. (It's fundamentally unfair that the pastor at St. Goofus tolerated a child-abusing subordinate, and the people at St. Aloysius down the street end up paying for it. It's penalizing people who didn't even have an incidental relationship to the crime.)

What is required is for a (Latin Rite) parish to be in union with the bishop, and that would include accepting the priests he sends them. We're not Congregationalists.

19 posted on 02/19/2020 8:14:15 AM PST by Campion (What part of "shall not be infringed" don't they understand?)
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To: Campion

This may be the new legal framework, and it makes sense given the legal ramifications over the past 30 years, but the Bishop can still desolve any of these corporations and distribute the assets at his sole discretion.

Even to go so far as to suggest that his ‘Presbyteral Council’ must approve is a bit of a stretch since the Bishop can call his council to fulfill their pledge of obedience. No one of faith will ultimately fight the Bishop, and push-back only goes so far.


29 posted on 02/21/2020 4:49:17 AM PST by beancounter13
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