What if a bishop refuses to quit?

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imo

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Hello.

What would happen in the following situation: a bishop is dismissed by the pope for some non civil punishable reason. The bishop, with the support of his diocese’s priests refuses to step down.

There are anyway the Vatican can enforce his replacement? Or the diocese would retain property of all the estate of the diocese including churches and the Cathedral and the new legitimate bishop would be without it all?
 
imo said:
What would happen in the following situation: a bishop is dismissed by the pope for some non civil punishable reason. The bishop, with the support of his diocese’s priests refuses to step down.

There are anyway the Vatican can enforce his replacement? Or the diocese would retain property of all the estate of the diocese including churches and the Cathedral and the new legitimate bishop would be without it all?
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So far as I am aware, title to all property, and all legal matters, are in the name of “The Bishop of X” as a corporation sole. The man who occupies the office of “The Bishop of X” is not quite the same thing as “The Bishop of X”. It is a legal fiction of sorts, which prevents John Smith from saying “I am the Bishop of X, and no other man can be the Bishop of X”.

I hope this makes some sense. I know precisely what I am trying to say, I just may not be using the most elegant or efficient verbiage.

This is the case in the US. I don’t know how other countries’ legal systems handle this.
 
This is extremely unlikely. However, if one must be preoccupied with things that “might” happen, why not wait and watch what the Church does?
 
Does this thread shed any light on things for you?
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Can a Catholic diocese break away? Catholic Living
Hello. In the hypothetic situation that a diocese, trough reasonable internal consensus between the bishop and priests decides for any reason to break away from Rome, is there any resource for the Holy See to regain control of the diocese without convincing the local clergy? By any legal way, I mean. For example, in America, legally can the Holy See gain an warrant so the police can reintegrate the diocese properties to the Holy See? Because, if the Holy See simply depose and excommunicate the …
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What’s with the preoccupation with Church authority going awry? (Rhetorical)
 
It is an intriguing question and I couldn’t find a completely satisfying answer just yet.
 
Speaking as a lawyer . . . it would be an interesting legal question.

Among others, you might go to very early church precedents as to the ability of the metropolitan synod and the metropolitan to suspend or remove a member . . .

So in the case of a bishop heading off his own way, it is conceivable that the metropolitan (archbishop) and other suffragan bishops could suspend/depose the renegade and put another into the see . . . (and in the US, there is actually established caselaw as to which parts of the dispute the courts would be inked in, and which they would not . . .)
 
If this is the case, and I think it is, the Pope’s newly appointed Ordinary would take control of the corporation. If a CEO gets fired, the courts don’t consider him in charge of the corporation. The courts don’t care who is a bishop, it’s who is the current chief officer of the corporation.

The parishes are a more complicated situation.

In my diocese there are five trustees for each parish: the Ordinary, the chancellor, the pastor, and two laypersons.

Theoretically a newly appointed Ordinary could appoint a new pastor and or Chancellor if he needed to.
 
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po18guy said:
This is extremely unlikely.
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Somewhat unlikely. Possible.
In the US in the 1970s early 80s some Dioceses were leaning towards quasi independence, the American Church. Think Seattle. It took a saint to prevent drift.

Today, think Germany
 
I see the situation twofold: who will have the title and who will control the property (churches, etc). As for the title, I don’t think the civil law would care about and the faithful would probably follow the Pope. But the property must have some contracts attesting who pr what entity is the owner of each church building. This is what I want to know. For example, let’s take the Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. How legally owns it? Who legally owns the entity that owns the Cathedral?
 
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