Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. "Every reputable continuing church that I know of has canons that state that the parish owns its property."
Wrong!
"Every reputable continuing church that I know of has canons that state that the parish owns its property. So the bishop cannot lord it over a parish like, say, an episcopal or catholic bishop can."
Catholics live in a completely different world.
There isn't really any question of bishops "lording property rights over the parish". What Catholic believes, for an instant, that the parish church is anything but the local branch of the Church of Rome?
None.
Catholics just don't think like Anglicans.
Catholics know and accept, without much comment, that they are in an absolute monarchy. There is no "tug of war" in the Catholic Church over property, because there is very clear and absolute hierarchical power. The Pope can fire a bishop on a dime. The Pope can fire a priest. The Pope can do anything. There is no basis of authority independent of Rome.
And it's not an issue.
Anglicans can split into this group and that and war with each other, but Catholics? Their church has one policy, and only one policy, and if you are a priest or a bishop that is your policy too. Now, there are priests and bishops and laity who have some disagreements and skirt around the edges and test the limits, but the point is that there are limits. Anglicans are dealing with committees and conferences. Catholics have an absolute monarch.
To put it in historical terms: sometimes you can roll Congress, but nobody ever rolled Louis XIV.
Different worlds.
Some Catholics want some sort of changes in the Church, but there are is vehicle within the Church to organize and mount opposition to the Church, and the Church is what Rome says the Church is. Some bishops think otherwise. And from time to time they are removed and shipped off to monasteries, things like that.
Anglicans at least colorably have bargaining power and political power within their Church, and so they think that way. An Anglican could write of "bishops lording it over parishes". Catholics have no power at all and know it. Most would look at any notion that there should BE any power or democracy within the Church with deep suspicion and theological concern.
Bottom line: Catholics think that God made the Pope the absolute monarch of the Church, the bishops serve him, the priests serve them, and the laity have a theological obligation of obedience to the duly constituted authority above them. There is no place in the Church of God for democracy, at all, because what people think is not relevant. What God ordained was established by Tradition thousands of years ago. It can't be changed. It shouldn't be changed. There is nothing to vote ON. The parish belongs to the Church, which is ruled by the Pope.
A Catholic chooses to be in the Church or to leave the Church, but there just isn't the foundation in Catholic thought for resentment that the bishop "lords it over" the parish. Of course he does. That's his job.