ADMINISTRATION OFFICE
Questions about Diocesan Administration
Responsibilities of the Administrative office
A. At the Diocesan Level
The administration of the ecclesiastical goods pertains to the person who is directly responsible for them, without prejudice to the right of the Ordinary to intervene where there is negligence on the part of the administrator (Canon 1279.1).
It is the Diocesan Bishop who has the ultimate responsibility for the overall administration and stewardship of the temporal goods of the Diocese and of its compenent parts, that is, parishes, diocesan institutions, and works (Canons 392 and 393).
At the parish level it is the parish priest or administrator who is responsible for the administration of the goods belonging to the parish (Canon 532).
In Ontario, Civil Law has acknowledged that the Diocesan Bishop has the responsibility to manage and operate the diocese as a civil corporation.
B. Operative Civil Law
Canon Law makes it mandatory for all administrators of temporal goods to ensure that the ownership of ecclesiastical goods are safeguarded in ways which are valid in Civil Law (Canon 1284 ,2). For this reason, from the very beginning of the Diocese, steps were taken to obtain a civil incorporation.
The first legal act establishing the 'Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation for the Diocese of Sault Ste Marie,' in Ontario, Canada is dated, May 25th, 1905 and was revised in 1935. The establishment of the DIocesan Corporation was by means of Legislative action on the part of the Ontario Government.