Vatican approves property norms at half level asked by U.S. bishops

Published: 2003-10-08

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Vatican has approved a request from the U.S. bishops to increase the minimum and maximum amounts at which approval is needed before selling or ceding ownership of church property, but limited the increase to half of what the bishops had requested. Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, announced the approval, or "recognitio," in a letter to bishops dated Oct. 3 and made available to Catholic News Service Oct. 7. The changes were approved by a 219-2 vote of the bishops on Nov. 13, 2002, as complementary legislation to the first paragraph of Canon 1292, which requires bishops' conferences to set the minimum and maximum amounts for "alienation" of church property. Since 1993 U.S. bishops have needed Vatican permission to give up ownership of church goods worth $3 million or more. The norms adopted by the bishops in November would have raised the maximum figure to $5 million for dioceses with fewer than 500,000 Catholics and $10 million for dioceses with a Catholic population of 500,000 or more. But the maximum figures approved by the Vatican and promulgated by Bishop Gregory with a Jan. 1 effective date were $5 million for dioceses with more than 500,000 Catholics and $2.5 million for other dioceses.

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