Bishops Defend Property After Spain Claims Irregularities in Registration

Crux ^ | 2/24/21 | CNS

[marshmallow]

MADRID — Spain’s Catholic bishops defended their church’s property rights, after the government accused the church of improperly claiming ownership of thousands of buildings and parcels of land.

“The church has registered goods which Catholic people have created and entrusted to it over centuries, so it could carry out its work of proclaiming the Gospel, celebrating the faith and exercising charity,” said a statement on the bishops’ conference website. “It has also registered assets received through bequests and inheritances, which have been used, one way or another, for the same purposes. It has an obligation to safeguard and maintain these goods, using them for its own purposes and making them available to society.”

Historic churches and cathedrals with no property titles were not included in Spain’s first property register, established in 1863 following a wave of confiscations by radical governments and reaffirmed under laws in 1909, 1915 and 1946. Under a 1998 law, the Catholic Church was invited to register its assets by a simple ownership declaration.

However, in a 3,000-page report published Feb. 16, the government said the 34,961 assets registered before the law was modified in 2015 had included many nonreligious assets, including residential buildings, garages, farms and vineyards. The report gives the church until 2023 to provide proof of ownership of the assets.

In a Feb. 18 radio interview, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said she had debated property issues with the bishops’ conference president, Cardinal Juan Jose Omella, and believed the church would adopt a “reasonable position,” knowing “some things have surely been registered which should not have been.”

However, she added that, while some lands and buildings were “clearly Catholic church assets in the field of historical heritage,” court challenges were likely to the church’s ownership of others.