Why are parishes in the Diocese of Phoenix being separately incorporated?
According to canon (church) law, every parish in the Diocese has its own unique set of rights and responsibilities, including the right to hold and administer church property. Under our current civil structure, however, parishes have no recognized legal identity, and thus no right to buy, sell, hold or administer their own property. After much study and prayer, we have determined that creating non-profit parish corporations is the most effective way to ensure that a parish’s rights regarding its property will be respected not only under church law, but also under civil law. In other words, by separately incorporating our parishes, we will be adopting a civil law structure that will most accurately reflect our ecclesiastical identity and our canonical structure.
