Buffalo, NY (WBEN) – To pay or not to pay? That’s the question facing parishes in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese as the deadline looms to pay into the abuse settlement fund. A Canon Law expert says he recommends against it.
“If someone came to me as a Canon lawyer and asked, Should we pay it? I would say no,” says Philip Gray of the St. Joseph Foundation. “I think that it is a significant violation of the pastors and and the parishes as a whole. So the peoples as well their rights in law under canon law, and I think it significantly harms the parish’s patrimony and identity.”
Gray says it hurts the parish’s identity, because under canon law, the parish is separately incorporated from the a diocese, just as it is under New York state law. “Parishes are separate corporations, and the head of that corporation and canon law is the pastor, and it is the pastor who, with his finance counsel and in conformity with the intentions of the parishioners who make up the parish. That’s the definition of a parish in canon law is an aggregate of persons,” explains Gray. He says the way the diocese is assessing these contributions usurps the role of the pastor and the people in the parish. “Essentially, they’re steamrolling them and not recognizing the authentic identity of a parish and its autonomy,” says Gray…