Vatican on Assets of Suppressed Parishes

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When a bishop suppresses a parish, its assets and liabilities must go to the parish or parishes that receive the parishioners, not to the diocese, a top Vatican official said in a letter to U.S. bishops.

The letter from Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Clergy to Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, could have significant implications for many U.S. dioceses that are closing parishes because of a shortage of priests or a declining Catholic population.
. . .
In his letter, sent in March and distributed to U.S. bishops in mid-July, Cardinal Castrillon said that most parish closings fall under the provisions of Canon 121 or Canon 122 of the church's Code of Canon Law, not Canon 123.

His congregation was concerned that "erroneous use of Canon 123 in the dioceses of the United States is not uncommon," he said.

Canon 121 deals with two or more parishes -- or any other institutions similarly classified in church law as "public juridic persons" -- simply being merged into one.

Canon 122 deals with parishes or other public juridic persons being divided -- as might happen if one portion of the Catholic community in a suppressed parish goes to one neighboring parish and one portion to another.

Canon 123 deals with the simple "extinction" of a parish or other church institution similarly classified.

In the first case, the assets of the suppressed parish should go to the parish it is merged with, Cardinal Castrillon said.

In the second case, the assets should be distributed equitably and proportionately to the two or more receiving parishes, he said.

Only in the third case should the parish assets revert back to the diocese, he said.