CANADA
The Chronicle Herald
November 10, 2017
By Tom Urbaniak
Last month, Bill 30 was introduced in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. It was unanimously given second reading by MLAs after less than a minute of debate. This new Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth Act is still before the standing committee on local and private bills, where it was rightly deferred for more consideration.
The implications are anything but local or private.
This proposed law would grant to Roman Catholic Archbishop Anthony Mancini regulatory powers that are currently held only by officials of the government. He would become, in effect, his own registrar of joint stock companies, with the unilateral power to create, dissolve, modify and completely control dozens of civil corporations.
The new act would also allow him to use provincial law, not just church law, to require parishes to “work collaboratively” with him on all matters.
I am a practising Catholic in the neighbouring Diocese of Antigonish. Our diocese, like so many others, was ravaged by sexual abuse of children by some priests. For decades, bishops covered up those crimes and transferred sexual predators from one unsuspecting parish to another.
This continued because the bishops claimed to have personal control over all personnel, accounts and property in the diocese. When finally faced with civil liability, they took money and property from the parishes, but kept the old, secretive structures going.
The parishes could not vet these priests or supervise them in any way. The bishop himself was answerable to no council and accounted to no lay people. There was no transparency.
In 2009, the then bishop, Raymond Lahey, was arrested in turn. He was eventually convicted and jailed for the possession of child pornography.
Mancini should be aware that the scandals were enabled by a system of no oversight or accountability. But now, he has asked the Nova Scotia House of Assembly to enshrine and protect that very sick system in the laws of the province.
MLAs should respectfully decline. They should allow the future parish corporations to have the same rights and responsibilities in law as any other corporations or societies in Nova Scotia. Their own bylaws could still reflect their Catholic identity and membership in the archdiocese.
On the surface, Bill 30 might appear to protect parishes by giving them their own civil incorporation to shield their assets in the event of crimes by the bishop and his priests in other parishes.
But this bill actually further disenfranchises parishioners and makes it virtually impossible for parishes to guard themselves against abuses.
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