church property

church property
Question from Teresa on 4/11/2008:

Who does the church property belong to and who has the right to sell or donate items belonging to the parish? Our pastor recently donated some old church furnishings for a charity auction. Does he have the right to do this? No one from the parish was consulted.
Answer by Rev. Mark J. Gantley, JCL on 5/1/2008:

In canon law, there are two kinds of persons -- physical persons, and juridic persons. Physical persons are those who walk and talk. Juridic persons are artificial persons, similar to civil corporations in civil law. Both physical and juridic persons can own property.

The parish is a juridic person at canon law, so the parish itself owns what belongs to the parish (e.g., church building, rectory, bank accounts, furnishings). The parish is represented and directed by the pastor. So the pastor would have the authority to donate old church furnishings for a charity auction. Assuming that the items were not of great value, what he did was licit (legal). It might have been prudent for him to consult the Parish Pastoral Council or the Parish Finance Council, if he did not do so, but this was probably not strictly required.

If the items donated were of great value or of special historical or artistic value, then perhaps what he did was illicit. But I don't have enough information to know that. The way you describe it, it sounds unlikely, and more likely these were unused items in storage somewhere.