Lay Administration
In many places laymen are called to a part in the care of church property, sometimes in recognition of particular acts of generosity, more often because their cooperation with the parish priest will be beneficial on account of their experience in temporal matters. Although the origin of the modern fabrica, or board of laymen, is placed by some in the fourteenth and by others in the sixteenth century, the intervention of laymen really goes back to very early times, since we find it referred to in councils of the seventh century.
Lay administrators remain completely subject to the bishop in the same manner as the parish priest. The difficulties caused by the pretensions of trustees in the United States during the early part of the nineteenth century evoked from the Holy See a reiteration of the doctrine of the Church regarding diocesan and parish administration notably in a brief of Gregory XVI (12 August 1841) wherein the Pope declared anew that the right of such inferior administrators depends entirely on the authority of the bishop, and that they can do only what the bishop has empowered them to do.
In some dioceses where the system of administration by lay trustees is in vogue the regulations and discipline of the Catholic Church are made a part of the bylaws of church corporations, a measure which is of advantage in case of a process before the secular courts.
Read more about this topic: Administrator (of Ecclesiastical Property)
Famous quotes containing the word lay:
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—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)