Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Monday, August 29, 2005

More church-property disputes

This article describes a "momentous" church-property ruling involving a dispute over homosexuality and property between an Episcopal church in Newport Beach, California and the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.  Perhaps it is because the article appears in World magazine -- a publication that is, I believe, Evangelical in orientation -- that the piece appears quite sanguine about the developments it reports:  "California courts appear to be the most aggressive in applying the neutral-principles doctrine."  Apparently, the local church even filed an "an anti-SLAPP motion against the diocese.  In legal jargon, a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) is a suit aimed at intimidating and silencing a critic by making defense so expensive the critic abandons it."

Judge Velasquez agreed with St. James: The diocese had sued only after the parish rejected its pro-homosexual doctrinal positions and the leadership of Bishop J. Jon Bruno. (Bishop Bruno had voted for the consecration of a noncelibate homosexual as bishop and endorsed blessings for same-sex couples.) The judge reasoned this made the case also a free-speech matter for the purposes of a SLAPP ruling.

Even if one is inclined -- as I probably am -- to sympathize with the dissenting, "conservative" parish, it seems to me that the law is reaching awfully far (and many believers are inviting the law awfully far) into internal church matters.

Rick

https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2005/08/more_churchprop.html

| Permalink

TrackBack URL for this entry:

https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515a9a69e200e5504109bd8833

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference More church-property disputes :

» Does the Roman Catholic Church Get Good Legal Advice? from PointOfLaw Forum
While the title of the post is somewhat incendiary and the Church’s lawyers did not cause the churches liability problems, I wonder if their lawyers have added to the woes.  A bankruptcy judge in Spokane held that the property of local... [Read More]

Tracked on Aug 31, 2005 11:02:08 AM

» Does the Roman Catholic Church Get Good Legal Advice? from PointOfLaw Forum
While the title of the post is somewhat incendiary and the Church’s lawyers did not cause the Church's liability problems, I wonder if their lawyers have added to the woes.  A bankruptcy judge in Spokane held that the property of local... [Read More]

Tracked on Aug 31, 2005 3:46:29 PM