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laetatussum
Guest
Yes, that would be a good idea. In fact, I know of one Catholic Church, St Leonard and St Mary’s Catholic Church in Malton, Yorkshire, where exactly that happened in the 70s.
Has the Catholic Church ever received compensation from the Church of England?
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Kaninchen
Guest
The Crown had granted lands to the Church and took them back.
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Kaninchen
Guest
Since the only source of finance for serious restitution would be the taxpayer, I expect this would be a very, very good way of alienating everybody else very, very seriously. 
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Kaninchen
Guest
They weren’t ‘stolen’, it was legal appropriation.
The crown had granted lands to the Church and took them back, the Crown didn’t ‘give’ them to anybody, they sold them.
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tafan2
Guest
Two different answers:
Before the final break with Rome occurred, the monasteries were seized. These lands and wealth were held in title by the various religious orders. No doubt they were taken. The monks and sisters often forced out to fend for themselves.
The answer would be a little more complicated for the typical parish church or cathedral. Likely they were technically some sort if common propierty it property if the Bishop, but I am not sure. Regardless, the Bishop and clergy and people changed allegiance, the property just stayed the same as to it’s ownership.
Beyond a doubt, the refotmatiin was driven in England by one thing: desire for the Church’s property by the aristocratic class. In England the Church controlled as much as a third of all property. It was too wealthy and the end result was not good.
You had in England the crown and the nobles desiring protestantism, the commoners not. 2 out 3 three and was enough. This did not go unnoticed by the French nobility. So you had the French nobility fight for protestantism, yet the crown and people wanted Catholicism. 2 out if 3 won again, kind of. The Church was permanently damaged and the revolution was the eventual result.
Before the final break with Rome occurred, the monasteries were seized. These lands and wealth were held in title by the various religious orders. No doubt they were taken. The monks and sisters often forced out to fend for themselves.
The answer would be a little more complicated for the typical parish church or cathedral. Likely they were technically some sort if common propierty it property if the Bishop, but I am not sure. Regardless, the Bishop and clergy and people changed allegiance, the property just stayed the same as to it’s ownership.
Beyond a doubt, the refotmatiin was driven in England by one thing: desire for the Church’s property by the aristocratic class. In England the Church controlled as much as a third of all property. It was too wealthy and the end result was not good.
You had in England the crown and the nobles desiring protestantism, the commoners not. 2 out 3 three and was enough. This did not go unnoticed by the French nobility. So you had the French nobility fight for protestantism, yet the crown and people wanted Catholicism. 2 out if 3 won again, kind of. The Church was permanently damaged and the revolution was the eventual result.
All right, good point made, I’ll grant that. But the Crown seized far more than just churches in England. There were vast land holdings as well.HomeschoolDad:
Well then the Church should compensate Spain’s Moslems for.the mosques that were converted to churches during the Reconquista for starters.
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Paul_Edwards
Guest
Somehow, when reading this I think of what has happened in communist countries recently, when dictators have taken peoples land and properties from them (as-well as Churches). No thanks, I don’t want to live under an unjust system like that. The whole point of rejecting communism means we recognize peoples right to own private land and that only in extreme circumstances it can be seized by the Crown.
If this is legal then legal is meaningless
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Dovekin
Guest
This is what happened with diocesan property. It remained in the hands of the diocese. I believe that in the USA they say the bishop is the owner of all property in the diocese, but that was the result of some lawsuits in the 19th century. British law probably reached a similar position.
The Anglican Church did not take these properties away from the Catholic Church. Catholics left these churches and the Anglicans who remained continued to own, administer, control them.
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Kaninchen
Guest
You appear to be living in a country named Anachronism.
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Kaninchen
Guest
Possibly because the Feudal System (all Land derived from the Crown, for example) isn’t explained to them in School?
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Kaninchen
Guest
The Plantagenets had close links with the Peoples Republic of Ming, I expect.
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Kaninchen
Guest
I remember a teacher telling us (first year Secondary) that King John was the cleanest British Monarch for centuries because he bathed once a week (somebody discovered his bath bills, apparently).
All just a bunch of Vikings anyway.
All just a bunch of Vikings anyway.
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Kaninchen
Guest
Sicily still misses them, brigandage has never had such a golden age! 
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AngelusDomini
Guest
Let’s be practical, the Catholic Church in England and Wales would probably resist any effort to have church buildings handed to them for the simple fact that they cost so much to maintain. The Anglican church would probably make the case that they have maintained and kept the building so no compensation is due. There are Catholic churches closing in the UK as there isn’t the money to keep them going. Many Anglican churches are now relying on funding from conservation trusts that set very specific requirements in order for funding to be released.
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Kaninchen
Guest
By legend, Russia’s all their fault as well, isn’t it? Either that or all the other Slavs thought it a good idea to blame them.
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Paul_Edwards
Guest
If the clergy and people change allegiance then they are no longer part of the Catholic Church and must buy or build another building to start up in.
That may very well be the case, but the Pope gets to decide who the Bishops are, hence the new Bishops the Crown appointed to Succeed these Bishops that were not in communion with the Pope did not own the property.
This is called infiltration and take over. There is two ways of leaving a building, leaving by choice and leaving without a choice. From history it seems that the latter is what happened to Catholics. If a person was even found out to be Catholic they could be put to death let alone for merely being in the Churches which were rightly there’s.
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TMC
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Today church buildings and so forth are generally owned by the diocese. In the US, individual Catholic institutions are organized as separate 501(c )(3)s, and that is the entity that owns the property. No idea what it was like in England back in the day.
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phil19034
Guest
Compensating the Catholic Church today would be wrong. The people of the Church of England today were not the ones who stole the land.
The Parishes and Monasteries that had their land taken are long gone. Since the individual parishes and monasteries would be the ones to compensate, there is no one to pay.
Besides, it is a BAD precedent to FORCE modern people to pay compensation / restitution for the crimes of their ancestors.
The Parishes and Monasteries that had their land taken are long gone. Since the individual parishes and monasteries would be the ones to compensate, there is no one to pay.
Besides, it is a BAD precedent to FORCE modern people to pay compensation / restitution for the crimes of their ancestors.
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phil19034
Guest
No. Per canon law, churches belong to the individual parishes and/or religious community. They do NOT belong to the diocese.
I’m familiar with this because my personal parish is going through the long process of purchasing a Church building from a merged territorial parish. One Sunday, Father took about 20 minutes to explain the whole process to everyone at each Sunday mass.
The church building used to belong to Parish A. Parish A was merged with Parish B. Now, the Church building and land belong to Parish B because the deed follows the people.
So Parish B will eventually be selling the Church building that we are currently using to us.
My Point: When the Church of England was created, the entire Catholic Church in England was suppressed and all parishes & dioceses were closed. Every diocese in England today either created or reestablished in the 1800s or 1900s (most were created new). And parishes started to re-appear sometime in the late 1600/1700s.
But NONE of the parishes that had their land taken are still in existence. The parishes & religious orders were the landowners who had their land taken. Because they don’t exist, there is no one to compensate.
I hope this helps.
God Bless
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