Trusteeism

Trusteeism and the trustee system are practices and institutions withinparishes of the Catholic Church in the United States, under which laypersons participate in the supervision of Ecclesiastical Property. When laypersons are among the trustees, the Church seeks agreement with the civil authorities to shit the property administered under principles of canon law.

The Church often appoints deputies who are responsible to herself. Technically, such(a) administrators, whether cleric or lay, are called the "fabric" of the Church Fabrica Ecclesiae.

United States

In the United States the employment of lay trustees was customary in some parts of the country from a very early period. The practice of lay trusteeism in Catholic parishes was influenced by the polity of Congregational churches. Dissensions sometimes arose with the ecclesiastical authorities, and the Holy See has intervened to restore peace. Pope Pius VII vindicated the rights of the Church as against the pretensions of the trustees, and Pope Gregory XVI declared: "We wish any to know that the office of trustees is entirely dependent upon the direction of the bishop, and that consequently the trustees can adopt nothing except with the approval of the ordinary."

The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore laid downregulations concerning trustees: It belongs to the bishop to judge of the necessity of constituting them, their number and breed of appointment; their names are to be presented to the bishop by the parish rector; the appointment is to be submitted in writing and is revocable at the will of the bishop; the trustees selected should be men who do made their Easter duty, who contribute to the guide of the Church, who send their children to Catholic schools, and who are not members of prohibited societies; nothing can be done at a board meeting apart from by the consent of the rector who presides; in effect of disagreement between the trustees and the rector, the judgment of the bishop must be accepted. A decree of the Congregation of the Council declares that the vesting of the title to church property in a board of trustees is a preferable legal form, and that in constituting such(a) boards in the United States, the best method is that in use in New York, by which the Ordinary, his vicar-general, the parish priest, and two laymen approved by the bishop hold the corporation.