A federal bankruptcy judge yesterday ruled that churches and schools in the Catholic Diocese of Spokane are owned by the diocese and can be sold to pay settlements to sex-abuse victims, a decision that evoked both triumph and disappointment.
The decision – the first of its kind in the nation – is considered a victory for victims and a loss for the diocese and its 80-plus parishes, which had argued that the properties belong to individual parishes, not to the diocese, and therefore were not subject to liquidation. . .
Under Catholic Church law, individual parishes own their property. And while the bishop holds legal title to parish property and schools, the church considers such property to be held in trust for the benefit of parishioners. The diocese argued that any decision to the contrary would violate the church's First Amendment rights in that the state essentially would be forcing the bishop to violate church law.
Link.
Eric Scheske works in a select few areas of law, including real estate and bankruptcy (from the creditor's side). He also has had occasion to argue (not necessarily quarrel) with his diocese about ownership and other issues.
This Spokane decision strikes him (i) as correct, and (ii) as a justified blow against the tendency of bishops to take inconsistent positions.
Eric isn't an expert on church law or its relation to the American secular system, but he's been flabbergasted at diocese personnel who argue that the diocese owns church property but doesn't own church property, that it controls its priests but can't control them, that its priests speak for the Church but aren't its agents.
At the risk of offending readers, Eric finds the Catholic Church (at least its American arm) frustratingly inept administratively, from the perspective of regular business and organizational norms. Eric largely overlooks the ineptness because (i) it no more effects the Church's teaching authority than the shabbiness of a church building effects the doctrines taught inside, and (ii) the Church is unlike any other organization. Indeed, the mere fact that it is frequently incompetent seems to corroborate its legitimacy as the avenue to the other-worldly.
Still, a little more competence, efficiency, and celerity when dealing with its troubles would be nice.
