BUILDINGS
44
BUILDINGS
performed ad cautelam as for instance when a church
has been occupied by soldiers for two days (C. S. R.,
27 February, 1847; Decreta, no. 2938). This legis-
lation does not refer to oratories which have re-
ceived only the benedictio loci.
VI. Immunity. — Churches enjoy by ecclesiastical law the same immunity from secular burdens and duties as all ecclesiastical property. The State may not burden them with taxes (Council of Trent, Sess. XXV, De ref. c. xx; Syllabus nos. 30, 32). In many States the laws recognize this privilege for parish and cathedral churches. Such immunity is very ancient, and dates from the Christian em- perors of the fourth century (O. Grashof, in Archiv f. kath. Kirchenrecht (1876), XXXVI, 3 sqq., 193 sqq. On the other hand, every irreverence within a church or public oratory is a sacrilege, such as the theft of an article even though it does not belong to the church; a fortiori, if it is the property of the church or an article that has been consecrated (Decretum Gratiani, P. II, c. xvii, q. 4, c. xxi; Friedberg, I, 820). Such also are the sins committed in a church, and especially external sins of the flesh (Lehmkuhl, Theologia moralis, Freiburg, 1898, I, 238. 239). The reverence due to the holy place forbids all profane actions. Therefore, the following actions are forbidden in a church: trials not falling within ecclesiastical jurisdiction, trading, games, plays and secular songs, banquets, the making of a dwelling either above or below the church, etc. In this category may be included the introduction of draperies and banners which have not been blessed by the Church (Wernz, III, 446). It belongs to the office of the bishop to specify what actions are for- bidden in the churches, and to settle the contro- versies which may arise. The bishop is also em- powered to provide for the maintenance of order and may also commit this care to a delegate, for instance, to the parish priest. In connexion with this see Right of Asylum.
VII. The Church Fabric. — By the term Fabrica ecclesise are to be understood not only the goods be- longing to the Church but also the administrators of these goods. Ever since the thirteenth century the laity have been allowed to participate in this administration, and the Council of Trent did not reprove their intervention (Sess. XXII, De ref. eh. ix). The civil power also intervenes in order to regulate the administration of the property of cathedral and parish churches. The following are examples of how the fabrics are organized in cer- tain countries. In France Napoleon recognized the fabrics of the churches, and entrusted the adminis- tration of the property of parish churches to five or nine elected members, to the parish priest, and the mayor. These formed the conseil de jabrique. The elective members holding office for six years and eligible for re-election, were chosen by the council itself. These vestrymen had in hand the adminis- tration of the temporal property of the church and elected from amongst their number a bureau des Marguilliers composed of three members and the parish priest, charged with the ordinary adminis- t ml inn and execution of the decisions of the council. The bishop had the right of control over the manage- ment oi the vestrymen. His approbation as well as thai of the State was required for their most impor- tant undertakings. The communal authority could Control the budgets and the accounts when the fabric asked the former for the necessary funds to defray the expenses of Divine worship, and for the maintenance of ecclesiastical buildings.
The French Municipal Law of 5 May, 1884, or- dered that the budgets and accounts should always be submitted to the communal council, and freed the commune from the obligation of making up a deficit in the resources of the fabric for the ordi-
nary expenses of divine worship. The bishop had
the power to organize the fabric of the cathedral
church himself, but the administration of its goods
was still under the control of the Government
(De Champeaux. "Reeueil general de droit civii
ecclesiastique francais", Paris, I860; Bargilliat, II,
110-159). This organization, modified, however,
by the Constitution of 1831 and by the law of 4 March,
1874, still continues in force in Belgium (De
Corswarem, Des fabriques deglises, Hasselt, 1904).
The Law of 11 December, 190.5, suppressed the
fabrics in France and replaced them by associations
cidtiie/les which Pius X forbade by his Encyclical,
"Gravissimo officii" (10 August, 1906; Canoniste
contemporain, 1906, XXIX, 572). This law by
handing over to seven, fifteen, or twenty-five persons
the administration of church property, without
making any mention whatever of ecclesiastical con-
trol, increases the State's power of interference in
the administration of these associations and gives
it full power to suppress them (Jenouvrier, Expose
de la situation legale de PEglise de France, d'apres
la loi du 11 deVembre, 1905, Paris, 1906).
In Prussia the fabrics of the churches were or- ganized by the law of 20 June, 1875, enacted during the Kulturkampf. In each parish (Kirchengemt indr) ecclesiastical goods are administered by a body of churchwardens termed Kirchenvorstand under the control of a parish board or Gemeindevertretung. This assembly is not , however, everywhere obligatory. The members of these assemblies are elected by all the male parishioners, who are of age and have re- sided for at least one year in the parish, pay the ecclesiastical tax, and have their own homes, conduct a business concern, or fill a public office. All electors over thirty years of age are eligible for office with the exception of ecclesiastics and the servants or employees of the church. No man can hold office in both these assemblies. The Kirchenr vorstand is composed of members varying in number from four to ten, according to the total number of the population. Since the law of 21 May, 1886, the parish priest (Pjarrcr) is the president ex officio of this assembly, except in those places in which, before the law of 1875, the presidency was given to a layman. This assembly administers the temporal concerns of the church. The Gemeindevertretung includes three times as many members as the Kir- chenvorstand. It is necessary that they should give their consent to the most important acts of the ad- ministration of the Kirchenvorstand: the alienations, the acquisitions, the loans, the most important works, taxes (Rirchensteuer), etc., and approve the budgets and accounts. The president of the Kir- chenrorstand. or his delegate, assists as a consultor at their meetings. All mandates remain in force for six years. The State and the ecclesiastical au- thority exercise supreme control over the most important actions of these fabrics (Archiv ftir katholisches Kirchenrecht, 1875, XXXIV, 167, 1876, XXXV, 161, 1886, LVI, 196, 1887, LVII, 153).
In the French-speaking portion of the Dominion of Canada (Province of Quebec) fabrics also exist. Their organization still corresponds, in its main outlines, to the ancient organization of the parishes in France before the Revolution of 1789, as de- scribed by Jousse in his "Traite du gouvernement spirituel et temporel des paroisses" (Paris, 1769). There is. first of all, the Parochial Assembly (Vestn I comprising all the Francs-tenanciers of the parish; no alienation, no loan, can be concluded without their intervention. In ease a subscription is necessary
they raise it by assessment. The churchwardens actually in office, called marguilliers du Banc, and the former churchwardens, must pay the ordinary expenses. This is the bureau ordinaire of the ancient
