The American Civil Corporation, the "Incorporation Movement" and the Canon Law of the Catholic Church

Abstract:     
This article examines the question of whether Catholic colleges and universities which have separated from their founding religious institutions by incorporating under boards of trustees are still Catholic and bound by the canon law. It answers this question in the affirmative. Although laypersons play a significant role in these incorporated colleges and universities, the institutions remain Catholic.

The article focuses on the incorporation movement, born after the second Vatican Council, as an effort to further academic progress previously lacking in these institutions and modeled after the American civil corporation. The author suggests that contemporary analysis of that movement is inaccurate, and instead the incorporated institutions are bound by the canon law of the Catholic Church in the administration of their properties. The author also discusses Ex Corde Ecclesiae, the Papal constitution on higher education, and finds that it is applicable to American Catholic institutions.

Keywords: Catholic Church, incorporation movement, canon law, Catholic colleges and universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, canon law

JEL Classifications: K22

Accepted Paper Series