Re: FW: Interesting question: Portland Archdiocese Filing Chapter 11

[Steven Jamar]

I doubt a court would tell a church to fire priests.  But it could conceivably set limits on various line items in the budget, including total salaries for priests, physical plant budget, etc.  Indeed, it seems it would need to so something like that.  The church sought the protection of organizing itself as a corporation and it sought the protection of the courts in bankruptcy -- and it has availed itself of the benefits -- it has limits as to what it can now pick and choose.

If the church were to refuse to limit its physical plant budget, then I could see the court stepping in and looking at attendance, history, value, contributions (income), and so on.  

I think the idea that the court could force the church to change into a for-profit institution is preposterous hyperbole.  That it might force the church to trim its charitable actions seems likely and entirely within the proper authority of the court under these circumstances.  

Let us not forget that it was the church's actions that brought about the problems for which it is finally being held accountable.  It should pay for its malfeasance.

-- 
Prof. Steven D. Jamar                                     vox:  202-806-8017
Howard University School of Law                           fax:  202-806-8428
2900 Van Ness Street NW	                        mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Washington, DC  20008           http://www.law.howard.edu/faculty/pages/jamar

"For all men of good will May 17, 1954, came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of enforced segregation. . . . It served to transform the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope."

Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1960 on Brown v. Board of Education


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