TUCSON (AZ)
Arizona Daily Star
By Stephanie Innes
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The lead bankruptcy attorney for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson is rebutting a Diocese of Phoenix contention that parishes are not separate financial entities.
In a "notice of clarification" filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, Diocese of Tucson attorney Susan Boswell wrote that parishes are financially separate from the diocese, which holds them in trust, "with each parish retaining the equitable and beneficial interest in that property." She asked the court to strike the Diocese of Phoenix's arguments from the court record.
Phoenix attorneys Jon Weiss and Mark Wagner filed a motion on behalf of the Phoenix diocese in October that said a parish "does not independently own any property or assets," and that parishes within a diocese are "part of the diocese itself" - separate under church law, but not civil law.
Weiss and Wagner's motion was in connection with a civil suit alleging sexual abuse of a minor by two priests and a nun at Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Phoenix during the 1960s. The civil action was filed by 51-year-old Allan S. MacDonald, who is in a state prison on assault and robbery convictions and is representing himself.