Vatican Stops Eminence Domain in Boston

The Boston Globe (may be FRR) is reporting that the Vatican has concluded that the Archdiocese of Boston erred in claiming the financial assets of closing parishes and must now ask pastors to voluntarily turn over millions of dollars in bank accounts and real estate holdings that the archdiocese had planned to take to shore its financial position after numerous settlements in the priest sex abuse scandal.

This comes in the wake of three other dioceses in the western US having filed for bankruptcy and trying to limit the assets that can be claimed by creditors by arguing in court filings that the assets of parishes belong to parishioners and not to the dioceses.

It is not clear whether a desire to help protect the bankrupt dioceses prompted the Vatican to block the Archdiocese's move, or whether this represents a shift in policy given that, in the past, according to archdiocesan officials, the archdiocese has closed parishes and taken their assets without objection.

Aside:

Yeah, OK. Archbishop O'Malley is not yet a cardinal, but "Excellence Domain" doesn't quite work.