Oregon Tax Court Approves Taxation Of Church Rectory - Forbes Magazine

Oregon Tax Court Approves Taxation Of Church Rectory
 
by Peter J. Reilly June 2, 2015

As a kid I remember being fascinated by a door in the side of the sanctuary at St. John’s Church in Fairview, NJ. It was very mysterious. Only the priests ever used it.  The explanation was pretty mundane.  There was an enclosed walkway over the driveway between the church and the rectory.
Father John Tran of St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Astoria Oregon doesn’t have a sweet deal like that.  His rectory is about a mile and a half from the church.  And that arrangement may be what had the parish in the Oregon Tax Court facing the Clatsop County Assessor.  Following what I have come to believe is the assessor’s code “When in doubt, tax it”, the parish had not been granted a property tax exemption for the rectory.

What Makes A Rectory A Rectory?
There is  little that shocks me and I can’t say that this case is an exception, but I do find it rather surprising. The Oregon Tax Court ended up approving the assessor’s denial of the exemption.
Father Todd Molinari , Vicar for Clergy of the Archdiocese of Portland testified about rectories.

Molinari testified that there has been Canon Law regarding rectories for centuries. Canon Law 533 requires priests to reside in a rectory near the church they serve.  According to that law, “[a] pastor is obliged to reside in a rectory near the church.” Molinari testified that that requirement is interpreted as requiring a rectory “within the territory of the church parish.” Molinari testified that a priest is given an endowment for an entire territory; the rectory enables the priest to faithfully execute his ministry duties within his assigned territory. Molinari testified that the rectory has to be within a “reasonable distance” to the church so the priest can facilitate his ministry, but because the priest has to be available to his parishioners, the rectory must be within a reasonable distance to the parishioners as well.
He began by explaining that the Church operates under the concept of “sustenance,” which means the local parish has to provide for the basic necessities of its priest. The particular requirements within a given archdiocese are usually spelled out in the policies of that archdiocese. The rectory must be within a reasonable distance to the church facilities, and provide a place for the priest to sleep, cook his meals, do his laundry, and have an area for study. The rectory must also have space for an assistant priest in the event there is one, and for seminarians studying for the priesthood who would be given a temporary assignment at a rectory. The rectory must also have space for visiting priests. The rectory is to be used for the purposes of the priest’s ministry.

St. Mary’s Star Of The Sea And Father Tran

Apparently the Parish covers rather a large area – over 360 square miles. I guess Catholics are thinner on the ground out there than they were in Bergen County in the sixties. St. John’s covered less than two square miles and had three full time priests supplemented by a Dominican who did the late masses on Sunday.  Besides the regular parish church St. Mary’s has  a “mission” where services are held to make it easier on people who live too far from the main parish.

The property in dispute is the third rectory that has been owned by the parish.  The original rectory, next to the church, was converted to administrative space and one within walking distance had been sold due to problems with heating and being too small to host guests.

Father Tran also testified.
The testimony seems to indicate that he was pretty much using the rectory, like, you know, a rectory.

Tran testified that the subject rectory in Astoria is a two story structure with a kitchen, a dining room, a study room, and a space on the other side of the kitchen area where Tran can visit with guests; it also has a master bedroom upstairs, two guest bedrooms, and a bonus room over the garage where Tran works on all church decorations needed for children to attend school mass. Tran testified on cross-examination that he uses the rectory as his full-time personal residence. Tran sleeps in the master bedroom. Tran testified that one of the guest bedrooms is used by visiting priests. He did not provide any specifics about such visits; how often they occur, how long a visiting priest stays, etc.
Tran testified that he prepares his own meals in the kitchen, and prepares meals for other church related visitors when they stay at the rectory. Tran later described the study as his library, explaining that he has a desk and bookcases in that room. Tran testified that he prepares sermons and homilies at the rectory. Tran testified that it takes him less than five minutes to get from the rectory to the parish by car.

The Decision
It probably has to do with my upbringing, but that assessor would not have done that well if I was the judge.  Of course, Magistrate Dan Robinson had to consider the actual law and everything, while I’m just looking at how this could be an updated version of Going My Way

The exemption for property owned by religious organization covers

houses of public worship and other additional buildings and property used solely for administrative, education, literary, benevolent, charitable, entertainment and recreational purposes by religious organizations, the lots on which they are situated, and the pews, slips and furniture therein. However, any part of any house of public worship or other additional buildings or property which is kept or used ***** for any purpose other than those stated in this section shall be assessed and taxed the same as other taxable property

When it comes to residences for clergy case law has evolved a two-prong test.  The official living in the residence must be required to live there by either church doctrine or practical necessity and the proximity of the residence to the house of worship must be necessary to further religious objectives.
The Oregon Tax Court saw the proximity as not being necessary to further religious objectives.

Although Tran does write sermons and homilies at the rectory, those duties do not require close physical proximity to the church. Tran could prepare those messages anywhere in Astoria, including the church, where he has at least one office. The other uses of the rectory have no direct connection to the church; they certainly do not require a rectory in close proximity to the church. There was generalized testimony about the availability of guest bedrooms for visiting priests, deacons, and seminarians, but no specific testimony or other evidence that such officials have stayed at the subject property and, if so, how many and how often they were there. Assuming such church officials did in fact visit and stay overnight at the rectory, they could have slept in a residence anywhere in Astoria, regardless of its location with respect to the church.
Tran testified he teaches members of the Domus Dei Order at the rectory on a monthly basis. That presents several questions. The Domus Dei Order is in Washougal, Washington, and there is no evidence it is part of the Portland archdiocese territory. If it is not, Plaintiff has not established how their visitations to the rectory in Astoria further the religious aims of St. Mary Church. Tran’s duties, according to his supervisor Molinari, are to his parishioners. The relationship between the parishioners and members of Domus Dei is unclear. In any event, Tran could teach the members of the Domus Dei Order at the church or any residence, regardless of its location with respect to the church. There is simply no evidence that the proximity of the rectory to the church is necessary to further the church’s religious objectives with regard to Tran’s involvement with Domus Dei, or that such involvement directly benefits the parishioners in any way. Tran does meet with his parishioners, but those meetings are all scheduled to take place at the church.

More Property Tax Coming For Oregon Catholic Parishes?
The decision closes with a somewhat ominous note.

Plaintiff argued in closing that all Catholic rectories in the Portland archdiocese are exempt. That may be true, but there is not a specific statutory grant of exemption for Catholic rectories. They are exempt if they meet the applicable legal standards, which is the reason actual use of the property must be examined in each case.

It would seem that many church rectories or parsonages, to use the homey American term, would flunk the test laid out by the Oregon Tax Court.  It will be interesting to see whether this becomes a trend. Parsonages have fallen out of favor with many Protestant denominations where the big tax subsidy is the federal income tax break that exempts cash paid for housing allowances from income tax.  The dubious constitutionality of that provision has avoided scrutiny thanks to rulings on nobody having standing to object to it.

Update
The last time this former altar boy tax blogger looked at a tax case involving a Catholic parish was back in 2012, when I wrote about Saint Frances X. Cabrini parish in Scituate, Mass.  The Archdiocese lost the property tax exemption for the property because the parish was being closed and parishioners have been occupying it, which is not an exempt purpose. According to Reuters, the parishioners have been ordered by the Norfolk County Superior Court to vacate by June 5.  The vigil has been going on for over a decade, so there may be some drama if it really does end this week.

Correction
The original version of this post contained a link to the biography of a different Father Tran.  See comments.
(VOCAL - look at comments in link above.)

Follow-up: CRS official resigns weeks after report he was in same-sex marriage.

There are many answers that Catholics need to ask when donating their hard-earned money to "Catholic" Relief Services, "Catholic" Campaign for Human Development and "Catholic" Charities. When a Catholic identity is absent in hiring people, giving thousands of dollars to anti-Catholic groups as CCHD does, do we have a right for a disclaimer so groups that upheld the teachings of our Church get money we want directed as a donation to our Church?  I believe this is the tip of the iceberg.  A simple phone call to these agencies stating that no more "Catholic" money will be donated until this disclaimer is honored will help the Church not to work against Herself.

Catholic News Service VOCAL added picture WASHINGTON — A veteran Catholic Relief Services financial official has resigned in the wake of report that he was in a same-sex marriage. Rick Estridge, vice president for overseas finance, stepped down after 16 years with the U.S. bishops' overseas aid and development agency, saying "it was the right decision for me." CRS announced Estridge's resignation in a statement emailed to Catholic News Service June 3. The agency described Estridge as a "valued employee." "Because of the stress this situation has caused Mr. Estridge and his family, he has made the decision to leave CRS," the statement said. The statement also said that Estridge entered into a same-sex civil marriage in 2013. The resignation comes six weeks after Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute, posted an unofficial copy of a marriage record from the state of Maryland indicating Estridge's date of marriage, the name of his spouse and their residence. Hichborn's report included social media posts attributed to Estridge in which the former CRS official supported gay rights and same-sex marriage legislation. "Given his position and his lifestyle, I don't think he belonged in a Catholic agency," Hichborn told CNS June 3 after the resignation was announced. Catholic teaching holds that marriage is between one man and one woman. In an interview posted May 18 on the website of Aleteia, a Rome-based worldwide network that shares faith resources, Carolyn Woo, CEO and president of CRS, said the agency was reviewing Estridge's situation. "We're also dealing with a new intersection between, in this case, state law and church teaching where the practice is being defined," she said. Estridge thanked CRS leadership "for providing me with the space to make this determination during this difficult time," in the agency statement. "I continue to have full faith in CRS' leadership and the organization as a whole. I thank my team and the global finance community for their hard work and dedication and have every belief that they will continue to serve with excellence." CRS commended Estridge for his work with the agency over the years. "He has done a tremendous job during his years at CRS and will be missed. We are grateful that he has agreed to be available as needed for consultation to ensure a smooth transition," the statement said. The agency said that Estridge was not Catholic and he held a position that did not involve mission-related decisions and thus did not have to be held by a Catholic. "CRS also want to express its strong objection to these types of attacks and tactics of the groups which launch them," without identifying Hichborn or the institute. "The highly personal public critique broadcast Mr. Estridge's home address and used derogatory terms that are now part of the online record. This has caused great pain for many people." The agency said it remained committed to treating people with "the respect and compassion they deserve as children of God." "We detest hurtful campaigns that do not build up, but undermine, individuals and church agencies carrying out the mission of bringing the love of Jesus Christ to those who are suffering," the statement added." Hichborn was unapologetic in his response to the resignation, saying that he believed that any Catholic organization should never hire anyone who is not Catholic. "The people (employed) really need to be practicing the faith," he told CNS. "I think any Catholic apostolate needs to be Catholic in its employees and its mission. It's not an industry. It's not just a job. People need to be Catholic." Hichborn, who said he was the Lepanto Institute's only employee, said he was simply presenting facts about Estridge that he uncovered after receiving a tip. "There's no judgment here," he said. "It's a matter of fact. He (Estridge) is living a life that is antithetical of Catholic teaching." Hichborn also said that Estridge's skills will allow him to find work quickly. "I will say I wish Mr. Estridge well. I hope he does repent of the lifestyle he is living. I'm sorry that the way he was living was not in line with Catholic teaching."

Bishop Vasa Co-Authors Handbook on Family to Counter Confusion Over Church Teaching

Archbishop Aldo de Cillo Pagotto of Brazil and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan co-authored ‘Preferential Option for the Family — 100 Questions and Answers Relating to the Synod’ with the Santa Rosa, Calif., shepherd.

by EDWARD PENTIN 05/27/2015 

Bishop Robert Vasa

– The Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa 

ROME — A handbook of 100 questions and answers explaining the Church’s doctrine on marriage and the family has been launched with the aim of clearing up confusion ahead of the October Synod of Bishops on the Family.

The booklet’s authors — Archbishop Aldo de Cillo Pagotto of Paraíba, Brazil, Bishop Robert Vasa of Santa Rosa, Calif., and Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary of Astana, Kazakhstan — describe the publication as a “vademecum [handbook] on the family.”

Said Bishop Vasa, “There is nothing new or revolutionary in this book. We just simply felt that, in light of the upcoming synod on the family, it was time to reiterate those things the Church has clearly and consistently taught.”

“We want to call attention to the truth of certain doctrines, many of which were raised at last year’s Extraordinary Synod [of Bishops] on the Family,” philosophy professor Tommaso Scandroglio told the Register at a Tuesday launch of the booklet in Rome.

Scandroglio, who presented the booklet entitled “Preferential Option for the Family — 100 Questions and Answers Relating to the Synod,” said it was “important to show the pastoral solutions we can apply as principles in our day.”

The authors write that they wish to address relevant fundamental issues on marriage and the family.
“The pastoral needs of the moment also require us to be entirely clear on crucial and delicate points debated in the latest synod, whose interpretation was partially distorted by some theological schools with overwhelming support from the mass media,” the bishops write in the introduction.

“It, therefore, seems appropriate to reiterate some fundamental doctrinal truths and pastoral requirements essential to the problem of the family, whose real situation is quite different from the one they would have us believe.”

Countering the ‘Anti-Family Offensive’

They add that the publication is designed “primarily” to serve as a guide not only for “bishops, priests, religious, catechists” and individual lay faithful in positions of responsibility and leadership, but also any laity concerned about attacks on the family who are “wishing to counter the reckless and powerful anti-family offensive of the mass media.”

The booklet, available in several languages, is divided into 13 chapters, with simple questions and answers. It begins by explaining the synod of bishops and its authority and preparation for the upcoming synod. It then goes on to answer questions on the Church’s relationship with the family, the sexual revolution, moral teaching and pastoral practice.

It discusses personal conscience and the magisterium, the nature and purpose of marriage, declarations of nullity, divorce and separation and Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried. It also covers homosexuality and same-sex unions, applications of mercy to the family situation and the role of supernatural grace in the commitment of family chastity.

Buzzwords
The answers to each of the questions “continually recall doctrine of the Catholic Church on these matters,” Scandroglio said.

One chapter is given to analyzing some key words used at the last synod — what it calls “talismanic words” — that carried “strong emotional content” and therefore were perceived as “entirely flexible and changeable.”

Words such as “hurt persons,” “mercy,” “welcome,” “tenderness” and “deepening” have an “elasticity,” the authors write, that make them “susceptible to being used for propaganda purposes and abused for ideological ends.”

When these words are used, they continue, it can “push the faithful to replace a moral judgment with a sentimental one or a substantial judgment with a formal one, coming to regard as good, or at least tolerable, what at first was considered bad.” The booklet then goes to explain in more detail what this means for each of the words mentioned.

Cardinal Medina

In his preface, Cardinal Jorge Medina Estévez, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship, underlines that most objective observers would agree that the family finds itself in a “real and profound crisis.”

“Facing this reality, it would not be a wise attitude to ignore or minimize this crisis,” he writes, adding that the Church must “evaluate its scope and magnitude and strive to find ways to overcome it.”

“This is the goal pursued, with realism and hope, by this booklet,” he says, and he later stresses that what is most important when facing the crisis of the family is conversion of heart, something that presupposes a “radical purification of thought.”

The Tradition, Faith and Property (TFP) movement is backing the publication of the booklet, which is being sent to all of the world’s bishops.

Those involved in the booklet project, including spokesman Scandroglio, are also promoting the “Filial Appeal” on the future of the family — a petition to the Holy Father calling for more clarity on the Church’s teaching in this area. The petition has gained more than 250,000 signatures, including those of four cardinals, 23 bishops and archbishops, academics and public figures, and will be presented to Pope Francis before the October synod.

Speaking at the launch of the booklet, John Smeaton, chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said it is a “wonderful publication” that addresses the “confusion of ordinary Catholics, formed in the faith but overwhelmed by the cultural whims of the sexual revolution.”
“It provides us with a language with which to speak to young people about marriage, faithfulness, chastity and salvation,” he said. “It gives us a sense of the power of God, of his grace, which brings true human happiness.” By contrast, he added, the sexual revolution has been orchestrated by powerful lobbies “in order to destroy families and destroy happiness.”

Edward Pentin is the Register’s Rome correspondent.

MORE INFORMATION
Copies of the ‘Preferential Option for the Family’ booklet can be obtained by emailing supplicafiliale@gmail.com or calling +39 366-9971856.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/bishop-vasa-co-authors-handbook-on-family-to-counter-confusion-over-church/#ixzz3bORDJd9G

Pope tells parents: "Don’t let ‘so-called experts’ usurp the education of your children."

Parents are the primary educators of their children and the Holy Father is taking this time, before his visit to the United States in September for the Synod on the Family, to remind all parents of this fact. 

It would follow that in their children's spiritual education parents voices need to be heard and "the Sacraments should not be held hostage" from children of parents who feel their children are prepared and need the Grace of these Sacraments.   

 God Bless Pope Francis for reminding everyone of their priorities.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ROME, May 20, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Parents have “self-exiled from the education of their children” and must take back their role as their children’s educators from the “so-called experts,” says Pope Francis.

At his May 20 weekly general audience, the Holy Father spoke out strongly against “intellectual critics” who have “have silenced parents in many ways, to protect the young generation from the damage – real or imagined – of family education,” according to Zenit.

“Yet the relationship between family and school ought to be harmonious,” said the pope. “Our children need sure guidance in the process of growing in responsibility for themselves and others. Christian communities are called to support the educational mission of families.”

Pope Francis said that “experts” have usurped the “role of parents even in the most intimate aspects of education. … On the emotional life, personality and development, rights and duties, the ‘experts’ know everything: objectives, motivations, techniques.”

And “the family has stood accused, among other things, of authoritarianism, cronyism, of conformism, of affective repression that generates conflicts.”

This has created a crisis of trust between the family and society, with parents backing away from educating their children, the Holy Father said. “Parents spend less time with their children, and schools are often more influential than families in shaping the thinking and values of the young.”
Parents “tend to entrust ever more to the ‘experts,’ even for the most delicate and personal aspects in [their children’s] lives,” the Holy Father said, according to Catholic World News. “And this is very serious!”

 

Thus “deprived of their role,” parents “become over-burdened and possessive of their children, never even correcting them.”

When he said a bad word to his teacher as a schoolboy, Pope Francis related, both his teacher and his mother corrected him. “Today, on the contrary, if a teacher does something like that, the next day either one or both parents will reproach the teacher because the experts say that children should not be corrected in that way.”

“It is evident that this approach is not good,” he said. “It is not harmonious, it is not dialogical, and rather than favoring the collaboration between families and other educational agents, it opposes them to one another.”

The pope also acknowledged the difficulties facing separated couples, but urged them not to criticize each other in front of their children, to “never, never, never take the children hostage.”

Pope Francis described “good family education” as “the backbone of humanism,” according to Zenit. “Its influence is the social resource that allows you to make up for the drawbacks, the wounds, the gaps of parenthood that affect less fortunate children. This influence can do real miracles. And in the Church these miracles happen every day.”

“May the Lord grant to Christian families the faith, the liberty, and the courage necessary for their mission!” the pope said in closing. “It is time for fathers and mothers to return from their exile, because they have self-exiled from the education of their children, and to fully reassume their educational role.”

 Baptism, Confirmation and then Holy Communion.  The correct order.

Six-year-old grandson changed his mind about being Confirmed.  Bishop Vasa agrees with having parents in charge of their children's souls.

His eight -year old brother was confirmed by Bishop Vasa and had his first Holy Communion the next year.

Duffy Gives Voice to Voiceless During Pro-Life Bill Debate