Property and Income of Religious Institutions: Public or Private

Abstract

The article considers the sources of income of religious institutes, origin and destination of Church property and the withdrawal of state ownership of church property (secularization) as a special form of nationalization. The analysis is performed on the example of the Orthodox Church, for this the sources of Canon law and the historical aspects have been studied. The author analyses the sources of acquisition of church property, makes the conclusion about the public mission of the church property. That means the seizure of church property generates budget expenditure commitments. The article describes the sources of church property, legal forms of its seculyarization, and also aims of church property. Acquisition of temple property is tracked from the oldest times but it could be made by law only from the moment of the Milan edict (313). The main sources of its acquisition are: donations, inheritance, purchase or creation, gifts from the state treasury. The mission of church property is defined by internal rules of Church, but it is not certain resolution in the the canonical law, despite clear understanding of due and undue use. Seculyarization is a historical form of nationalization, its character depends on an involvement of the state into affairs of church management. The seculyarization history in countries of Western Europe is connected with a problem of „killing” of church property for a civil using. In the East (the countries of East Christian religion) such problem didn't stand owing to bilateral process of donation and withdrawal of property between the church and the state.