Administration of Ecclesiastical Temporal Goods in the Light of the Instructions of the Polish Episcopal Conference of 2015

Abstract

The mission of the Church is evangelisation and not acquisition of capital. It is good if the Church has sufficient financial means necessary to fulfil its mission. The Catholic Church has the inherent right, independently of any secular power, to acquire, retain, administer and alienate temporal goods, in pursuit of its proper objectives (can. 1254 of the Code of Canon Law). In order to fulfil its mission in the world, the Church needs to be supported by appropriate material goods and the freedom to administer them. The Code of Canon Law of 1983 introduced a new regulation regarding ecclesiastical property, so as to make sure that the Church could better suit the concept of a “poor Church” that, being in the need of economic resources to achieve its goals, focuses on the instrumental task of such resources: so that the faithful fulfilled their duty in the form of helping in maintaining the Church and its works as part of their fundamental rights and obligations related to the temporal goods; so that spiritual goal of ecclesiastical offices was emphasised and the revenues received were justly distributed. The Polish Episcopal Conference on 25 August 2015 approved the Instruction on the Administration of Ecclesiastical Temporal Goods. In the present article four points will be discussed: The right of the Church to the acquisition, holding and alienating of temporal goods; the Instruction of the Polish Episcopal Conference on the acquisition of temporal goods; the Instruction of the Polish Episcopal Conference on the administration of temporal goods and contracts; the Remuneration for priests.