Section IV. Property Rights of the Church

The Right of the Church to Possess Property

We have already seen that not only physical persons but corporations or societies can also own property. The Church is a perfect, independent, and visible society founded by Christ our Lord, and endowed by him with all the rights and privileges which are necessary to enable her to attain her end. This end is the sanctification and salvation of souls by the preaching, propagation, and exercise of the Christian religion. It is obvious that for the support of the Church’s ministers and missionaries, for the building and upkeep of churches, for the decent and proper exercise of religious worship, and for numerous other purposes, ample revenues and lands are required, and, inasmuch as the Church has the obligation and the right to work for the end for which she has been founded by God, so she has the right to the necessary means. This reasoning is confirmed by the condemnation by the Popes of several false propositions bearing on the Church’s right of ownership¹ (Can. 1495).

¹ Props. 10, 32, 33, 36 of Wyclif; and Prop. 26 of the Syllabus.

The general truth that the Church has a right to own movable and immovable property is certain, and does not depend for its validity on the question as to who is the definite owner of Church property. This was a disputed question, some theologians maintaining that God is the immediate as well as the ultimate owner, inasmuch as Church property is said to be given to God; others taught that the universal Church or the Pope is the owner; others, again, that the corporations constituted by individual churches, dioceses, religious congregations, and orders are the real owners of the ecclesiastical property belonging to those institutions. This last opinion is commonly accepted nowadays, and it seems more in keeping with the intention of the donors of such property, which is usually the benefit of a particular religious institution for the honour of God, and in this sense they make their offering to God (Can. 1499, sec. 2).

The administration and management of Church property belong to those ecclesiastics who have been lawfully placed over the churches, dioceses, institutes, etc., to which the property belongs; and the Pope as the supreme head of the Church on earth has the supreme administration, or the altum dominium, as it is called.¹

¹ Can. 1519-1521, etc.

The profits derived from ecclesiastical property should, according to the Church’s law and natural equity, be devoted to those purposes for which the donors gave the property. If this cannot be done because the object for which the property was given no longer exists or for some other legitimate cause, it is for the Pope to make the needful dispositions so that the intention of the donors may be carried out as far as possible (Can. 1514).

No immovable ecclesiastical property, or even movable when it is of considerable value, may be alienated without the leave of the Holy See, and the penalty of excommunication is incurred by all who attempt to do so or to receive the same without the requisite permission. The Pope for good cause may of course alienate Church property, as he has not infrequently done, especially in times of upheaval, as after the Reformation in England and after the French Revolution (Can. 2347).