MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation
11/19/2014
Jennifer Haselberger
Noting that ‘the interests of individual parishes are distinct from those of the Archdiocese’, two diocesan priests have taken the bold and, to my mind, unprecedented step of securing independent legal counsel for their parishes, with the goal of working out a separate global resolution to liability claims against individual parish communities.
In one sense, this is the fullest expression of canon 532, which states ‘in all juridic affairs the pastor represents the parish according to the norm of law.’ I am not as confident that the bylaws of the parish corporations offer a similar level of support for this position. Under Minnesota law, parish corporations are governed by a Board of Directors consisting of five members- the Archbishop, the Vicar General, the Pastor of the parish, and two lay trustees (Minnesota Statutes, Section 315.15). While the pastor and the trustees have the authority to transact daily business on behalf of the parish, proxies from the Archbishop and Vicar General must be sought for acts of extraordinary administration, including resolving individual or aggregate claims by financial settlement. Moreover, certain acts require the consent of either a majority of directors or the unanimous consent of all of the members, including some contracts for services.
Historically, adopting this structure for parishes was thought to guarantee that the bishop (or Archbishop) always retained the upper hand, while at the same time the assets of the parishes were protected by the veil of indirect control. In other words, the administration of the corporation was entrusted to an ‘independent’ board of directors, despite the fact that the bishop is both a member of the board and has the authority to remove, effectively, all the other members should their ‘independent’ judgment conflict with his own.
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