[zzen01]

This is what happens when a demonination does not police themselves, the Government has too.

[brainstem223]

Shame on the bishops who were accessories to these terrible crimes..

[packrat35]

Isn't this completely opposite of a recent ruling following the Anglican Church where breakaway churchs were declared the owners of the property-NOT the national.

[JoeFromSidney]

So now we have a judge deciding on the internal organizational structure of a church. First Amendment, anyone?

[COBOL2Java]

When I first heard this, my first thought was "Good!"

The best way to focus an administrator's attention is to hit him in the pocketbook. If this means the Bishop has to wind up living in a trailer park, then so be it. Let it be a lesson for future leaders of the church that you don't ignore something as heinous as this, or try to sweep it under the rug.

[Clemenza]

Couldn't have happenned to a nicer bunch of degenerates.

Feel bad for the Parishioners though.

[Salvation]

**However, Perris left open the question of whether the sale of individual church properties could pose an unfair burden on the practice of religion under the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act of 1993.**

Does anyone know anything about this?

[conservativehistorian]

Well I note that the Catholic bashers are out in force again at Free Republic on the thread that you started. I hope that their venom has now been spent and that 2006 will be a happier and more productive year for the bashers.

However since a purpose of Free Republic is to educate, I'll point out that the Catholic Diocese of Tucson several months ago emerged from bankruptcy. An amicable agreement was reached between the plaintiffs and the diocese that shielded all parish assets. All Tucson's parishes have since become incorporated.

Happy New Year.

[Myrddin]

A bankruptcy judge ruled Friday that the Archdiocese of Portland, not its parishes, owns church assets, dealing a major blow to its efforts to protect church property from lawsuits filed by alleged victims of priest sex abuse.

The question of ownership should not be a matter of a "ruling" by a judge. Find the property titles. Who owns and controls the titles to the property? If the diocese holds the titles, the property is fair game for settlement of debts. The church kept the sexual abusers on the payroll and tried to cover up their criminal behavior by shuffling them around. I don't believe that the criminal behavior was unknown to all the parishoners. They also failed to stand up and be counted. The consequences of permitting the criminal behavior falls on the church, its assets and parishoners. Pay restitution to the victims and resolve to never permit the behavior again.

[BCrago66]

The Free Exercise of Religion does not mean that Church property is exempt from seizure when a court or a jury finds that its agents injured innocent victims. This is called the neutrality priciple, i.e., so long as a government policy does not specifically target religious believers, it is not unstitutional when such a policy impacts upon those believers and their institutions. This author of that principle is..........Justice Antonin Scalia.

[muir_redwoods]

One can look the other way until there is no other way to look but guilty.

[Jack Black]

Homo priests, corrupt judges and slick lawyers are stealing 150 years of accumulated property from Catholic citizens. Our houses of worship will end up as strip clubs, mark my words. This is what is intended, all around.

Like the sticker says "keep honking, I'm reloading ... "