Billions for Bishops in NSW windfall

New legislation in NSW gives Bishops in the State wide ranging powers to acquire assets and property belonging to Religious Orders, raising concerns that the freedom of the Orders to dispose of their own assets has been severely restricted.

The Roman Catholic Church Communities Lands Amendment Act (2001) was proclaimed into law on 1 October 2004.

The purpose of the Act is to provide for the winding up of the "body corporate" - the civil legal entity that permits a Catholic Order to own assets. This winding up can be either voluntary or complusory.

Most Orders have a 'civil identity' as the owner of its lands, schools, buildings and other assets. As those in the Orders grow old and the communities begin to die out, the new law allows an Order's assets to be transferred to other similar bodies as part of the winding up.

There are 133 such corporate bodies listed in New South Wales Law. (Schedule 2 and see Part 4)

Essentially, if 75% of the members agree that they should be wound up, and the Bishop consents, the entity will go out of existence. (This is not the Order itself, but the entity which for the purpose of civil law owns assets.)

But it can also be wound up involuntarily if "the community...has suspended its operations or religious duties for...12 months". It can also be forcibly wound up if the local Bishop applies to the Court.

New rules also mean that Corporations Law now allows that only a Bishop may wind up a body corporate.

Due to the virtually free labour donated by members over the years and the generosity of the Australian public, many Orders are much better off than might be expected. For example, a big Order such as the Christian Brothers owns 83 separate land titles from Rose Bay to the Great Lakes, in NSW alone. Even a small Order, for example the Sisters of Our Lady of China, is listed as owning 8 separate titles. An Order of medium size such as the Missionaries of the Divine Word, is listed as having an interest in some 90 properties in NSW.

Thus it is in the distribution of assets that the Act will be of special interest.

Furthermore, people who leave their money to their favourite Order may, from now on, be adding to diocesan coffers without intending to do so. Bequests made to a community whose corporate identity had been wound up will, under the new Act, be "treated as a reference to the Bishop of the relevant Diocese." (Part 24)

Some Orders believe their ministries will not survive unless they are connected to the diocesan church. However Orders believe that the reverse is the case.

The Act effectively limits the autonomy of a Religious Order to make a genuinely free choice about the disposal of their assets. They will be prevented from transferring assets to any recently constituted group, or a lay group operating in a shared area of ministry. Thus the Jesuits could not give their assets to Uniya if they chose to. The Columbans could not give their assets to the Faith and Ecology Network, or other environmental group.

Online Catholics has not yet been able to ascertain whether similar legislative reforms have occurred in other states.

According to Hansard, the NSW legislation was supported in 2001 by the Archdiocese of Sydney, represented by the then spokesperson, Fr Brian Lucas, and the Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes NSW.

The Act:
Roman Catholic Church Communities' Lands Act

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