c. 2007 Religion News Service

Catholic Bishops Urge Parishes to Tighten Financial Oversight

(RNS) The nation’s 19,000-odd Roman Catholic parishes should tighten internal controls to protect against financial improprieties, according to a committee of experts that advises the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The lay-led committee, which recommended keeping a closer eye on the collection plate and “effective oversight by the bishop,” has been discussing its proposals for a year, said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops’ conference.

Eighty-five percent of Catholic dioceses responding to a recent survey experienced embezzlement during the past five years, according to a Villanova University report. Eleven percent reported internal thefts of more than $500,000 each.

A Virginia priest appeared in court Thursday (Jan. 18) to face charges of felony embezzlement after the Richmond, Va., diocese accused him of stealing more than $600,000 from two Virginia churches.

The USCCB’s Accounting Practices Committee recommends parishes send an annual letter to their bishop, detailing the names and professional titles of parish finance council members, dates of meetings and a copy of published financial statements and budgets.

Parish finance council members should undergo thorough training and dioceses should establish policies to cover conflicts of interest, fraud and whistle-blower protections, according to the committee.

The committee also said seminarians should be given financial training. Bishop Dennis Schnurr of Duluth, Minn., rejected that suggestion, according to a statement from the USCCB.

“Seminary days are jampacked enough, and I am not certain that finances should be added to the schedule,” Schnurr said. “Members of the laity who have expertise and experience with administration and finance should be encouraged to consider a stewardship of their talents.”

_ Daniel Burke

Top Irish Anglican Says Catholics Should Have Access to British Throne

LONDON (RNS) The new top Anglican prelate in Ireland says the time has come to ditch a 300-year-old law that prevents Catholics from assuming the British throne.

Bishop Alan Harper, who will succeed Archbishop Robin Eames as archbishop of Armagh, said the 1701 Act of Settlement “belongs to its time, and we should move on.”

The act bars from the throne “all and every person who … is are or shall be reconciled to or shall hold communion with the see or church of Rome or shall profess the popish religion or shall marry a papist.”

The law followed the 1688 “Glorious Revolution,” which deposed King James _ known as James II in England and James VII in Scotland. James, a Catholic, was replaced with his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange.

Harper acknowledged that repealing the law could have implications for the Church of England because the British monarch is the church’s supreme governor. But he felt that disestablishment of the Church of England was something it would “not only get over, but would be the better for.”

Harper is the most prominent Anglican to criticize the law; most complaints have come from current and former Catholic leaders.

In 1999, the then-Anglican archbishop of York, David Hope, criticized the act for barring a monarch who was married to a Catholic, saying “members of the royal family should … be free to marry whom they will.”

Two years ago, Bishop Peter Selby of Worcester supported an unsuccessful bill that would have removed the marriage provision. At the time, he also said “there is no reason why a Roman Catholic _ advised by ministers, who can be of any religious persuasion or none _ could not be the supreme governor of the Church of England.”

_ Robert Nowell

Cemetery Trees at Center of Church-State Battle in Ohio

RAVENNA, Ohio (RNS) The large “X” on the trunk of a stately oak in St. Mary’s Cemetery has faded, but the 200-year-old tree remains in danger more than two years after it was marked for removal.

Its staunchest supporters _ relatives of those buried under its far-reaching boughs _ are in a battle between church and state.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Jan. 12 that, for now, the Rev. John-Michael Lavelle of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church could not order the oak and other trees felled. The court wants the trees to remain until it decides whether to accept an appeal filed by John Plough and others who argue that the operation of the Catholic cemetery does not fall under canon law.

Plough turned to the Supreme Court after a state appeals court said neither it nor a lower court had jurisdiction; it said a church tribunal ruling that the trees could be cut should stand.

“As a general rule, civil courts lack jurisdiction to adjudicate purely ecclesiastical or spiritual disputes of a church,” the appellate court said.

Plough, however, contends that “this is not an internal church matter.”

Mary Beth Houser, the lawyer for the church, declined to comment.

The cemetery deed is titled to the bishop of the Youngstown Catholic Diocese, who is responsible for all diocesan property.

Plough said he and others are the beneficiaries of the charitable trust to which the cemetery belongs because they are members of the congregation and their families own cemetery plots.

But the church said the congregation, not individuals, is the beneficiary of the trust, and the pastor, Lavelle, governs the congregation.

In July 2004, Lavelle wrote in the church bulletin that several large trees would be removed because falling limbs and expanding roots were damaging headstones, according to court documents. The church wanted to widen a road and build a new chapel and maintenance building. It would plant new trees.

Plough, who has been joined in his legal battle by his brother and several people with relatives in the cemetery, said the trees are healthy, are not causing a problem and were there before the cemetery was established in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

“Trees bring solace and peace and tranquility and attract living things, such as squirrels and birds,” Plough said.

_ Karen Farkas

Quote of the Day: School Principal Larry Cavanah in Hopkinsville, Ky.

(RNS) “I admire people who stand up for their faith. But the law is very clear. You can’t promote one religion over another.”

_ Larry Cavanah, principal of Christian County Middle School in Hopkinsville, Ky., explaining why he ordered the removal of Bible verses that were painted on a school bathroom wall as part of an effort to cover graffiti. Cavanah, who acted after a parental complaint and on the advice of his school district’s attorney, was quoted by The Associated Press.

KRE END RNS