Ryan v. Dunzilla

Citations

• 239 Pa. 486
• 86 A. 1089

Syllabus

<p>Equity — Religious societies — Church law — Church property— Moneys arising out of church property.</p> <p>1. So far as the canons of an ecclesiastical body are in conflict with the laws of the land they must yield to the latter, but when they do not so conflict, they must prevail.</p> <p>2. The absolute ownership of church property by the congregation, subject to the limitation that it shall not divert it from the uses with which it is impressed carries with it the-right of control of moneys arising out of the congregation for the maintenance of the property of the church. Other revenues paid by the members of the congregation for pious uses are governed by the law of the church.</p> <p>3. In a suit between the archbishop of a Catholic diocese and the congregation of a particular parish a decree enjoining the respondents from taking up a collection at the portals of the church and from interfering with the priest in the issuing of permits for the burial of the dead in the cemetery, will not be reversed where such decree is based upon legal conclusions, not assigned as error, that such collection is in conflict with the laws of the church and that under such law the priest has the sole and exclusive right to say who shall be buried in the cemetery belonging to the congregation, no law of the land being in conflict therewith.</p> <p>4. In such case it appeared that part of certain moneys in controversy arose out of the sale of lots in cemeteries and for the purchase of permits of burial therein and as rental for the use of rooms in the basement of the church, the balance arising from other sources. Meld, that moneys from the first mentioned sources belonged to the congregation-for church purposes; and that other moneys arising from other sources belonged to the priest under the law of the church.</p>