Catholic Church's Approach to Property Ownership
I saw this in the Washington Times on April 19, 2008:
Parishes ready for independence
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland is handing over property deeds to its parishes in a move to make them legally independent, part of a bankruptcy settlement the archdiocese reached last year with victims of sex abuse by priests.
Each parish will be reorganized into a nonprofit "member corporation" with a five-person board of directors.
The archdiocese argued in federal bankruptcy court that church real estate belonged to the parishes, not the archdiocese. The reorganization will spell that out legally.
The victims argued the real estate could be sold to meet settlement claims against the archdiocese.
Very Interesting!
