DIOCESAN NEWS
12/09/11
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Canonical scholar talks
about caring for ‘temporal goods’
By Fr. Jeffrey Waldrep
I have had the opportunity to minister in a lot of various ways over the past 21 years of priesthood and this past week didn’t disappoint me. I was honored to host 56 of my chancery and tribunal colleagues from the provinces of Mobile and Louisiana for a three-day conference in downtown Jackson.
This was our 60th annual conference in which we get together in a different diocese each year to pray together, support one another and have a series of continuing formation sessions.
This year, as president of the Conference of Chancery and Tribunal Officials in the Provinces of Mobile and Louisiana, I chose to have Msgr. John Renken, STD, JCD, from Ottawa, Canada, to come speak on the growing issue of caring for the church’s “temporal goods.”
Msgr. Renken, one of the leading canonical scholars on the issue of governing temporal goods, just published a book entitled, “Church Property: A Commentary on Canon Law Governing Temporal Goods in the United States and Canada.”
This may all seem boring, but if you think about it the church has all kinds of buildings, real estate, investments, sacred vessels, art, etc… that have to be cared for. Who gets what, when and how is becoming more and more of an issue in the church as there are  various levels of mismanagement, i.e. buildings not being cared for, the intentions of donors going unmet, historic liturgical vessels being coveted by individuals for non-liturgical use, etc….
Msgr. Renken led us in a series of reflections reminding us the material goods of the church all exist to assist in the performing of the church’s mission, which is, in the last analysis, the salvation of souls.
He reminded us of the laws in the church that regulate acquiring goods (cc. 1259-1272), administration of material goods (cc. 1273-1289), contracts and especially alienation (cc. 1290-1298) and pious wills in general and pious foundations (cc. 1299-1310).
He spent the last half of the conference reminding us of how important it is to assure that parishes and missions take yearly inventories of their temporal goods, have periodic audits and have statutes that define how the individual parish or mission acquires, administers and alienates its goods.
 While there does not seem to be enough hours in the day to do all that needs to be done, I believe we left with a greater appreciation of the importance of properly caring for the temporal goods of our church.
We in the church have been given much and caring for our material gifts in order to continue the church’s mission is a ministry in itself.
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