Ask Father: The Faithful Put Blood, Sweat, and Tears Into the Building, Revival of Churches, Parishes. Given How Bishops Treat Them, Is There Recourse in Canon Law?

Yes, under Canon 1300, but as Fr Zed points out the appeal would go to Rome and given the situation, such an appeal would fall on deaf ears.

From Fr Z's Blog

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

I’d love to hear your thoughts on where things go from here with the traditional liturgy, given the developments in DC and Chicago, as the faithful have put real blood, sweat, and tears into the building and revival of churches and parishes. I can’t help but believe that Rome will have to intervene, especially given the way that Cardinal Cupich has been treating the ICKSP’s Shrine in Chicago. Which, is there any recourse in canon law? The issue clearly isn’t going away….

Correct. It is not going away. In the meantime there will be a lot of unnecessary pain and damage.

However… not all pain is fruitless and not all damage is waste. There is such a thing as “creative destruction”, even outside of economic theory. It works in the economy of salvation as well.

We must persevere in prayer and confidence, resisting in devotion.

There would be recourse in canon law, if we were in normal times. Alas, today those appeals fall on deaf ears.

Canon 1300 establishes that

“The intentions of the faithful who give or leave goods to pious causes whether by an act inter vivos or by an act mortis causa, once lawfully accepted, are to be most carefully observed, even in the manner of the administration and the expending of the goods…”

These goods, including the labor, were given for a specific purpose: to order the churches to make them appropriate for the celebration of the Old Mass.

These goods were accepted.

It is incumbent upon the bishop to see that the wishes of the donors are respected, or, in justice, he needs to return those gifts to the donors.

An appeal could be lodged with the Holy See, but, again, such an appeal in these days would fall on completely deaf ears.

One might have more success making an appeal in civil court.

One wonders if the appellant would have any success in proving that the Church is not following it’s own internal law and therefore is violating stated rights. I don’t know civil law enough to to offer anything useful about that. Also, courts are reluctant to get involved in Church matters.

Certainly such a case would potentially draw a lot of press attention, and that might not be an altogether bad thing.