Britain's Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse Publishes Its Final Report

In Britain yesterday, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which was established in 2015 under the Inquiries Act 2005 published its Final Report. (Full text).  The Executive Summary says in part:

This report is the final statutory report published by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (the Inquiry). In accordance with the Terms of Reference, it sets out the main findings about the extent to which State and non-State institutions failed in their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation and makes recommendations for reform. It draws on the Inquiry’s 15 investigations and 19 related investigation reports, the Interim Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and 41 other Inquiry reports and publications. The Inquiry has made 20 recommendations in this report. These final recommendations complement the 87 recommendations contained in the previously published investigation reports (including six which have been restated).

Among the Inquiry's 15 investigations were ones into the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales and the Anglican Church.

Supreme Court Denies Certiorari In Church Property Dispute

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied review in two related cases, All Saints Episcopal Church v. Diocese of Fort Worth (Docket No. 20-534) and The Episcopal Church v. Diocese of Fort Worth (Docket No. 20-536), certiorari denied 2/22/2021. (Order List.) In the cases, the Texas Supreme Court resolved a factional property dispute between a break-away congregation and The Episcopal Church. It held that using neutral principles, property of the diocese belongs to the withdrawing faction that affiliated with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. (See prior posting.)

Trial Court Rules In Factional Dispute In California Church

In a long-running case on remand from a California appellate court (see prior posting), a Los Angeles trial court judge yesterday entered a final judgment giving possession of the church and a commercial building it owns to one of the two competing factions in the St. Mary of the Angels Church in Los Feliz, California.  The Los Feliz Register reports that the court ruled in favor of Father Christopher Kelley and his followers.  An earlier Los Feliz Register report provided background:

Father Christopher Kelley—the rector from 2007 until his firing in 2012—and his supporters took sanctuary in the basement and celebrated mass, while the anti-Kelley faction used the church’s regular first floor offices and held mass in its tiny, but lovely chancel.

After three years and reams of legal documents filed by both sides with allegations hurled both ways, if you attended a mass today at weary St. Mary’s, you would be among only a dozen or so parishioners left from its once healthy congregation.

The dispute was complicated by the vote of the congregation's parishioners in 2012 to end affiliation with the Anglican Church and join the Catholic Church.  The losing faction in yesterday's decision said an appeal will be filed.

Australian Court Finds Anglican Diocese Liable For $40M Bank Loan

In Anglican Development Fund Diocese of Bathurst v. Palmer, (NSW Sup. Ct., Dec. 10, 2015), a trial court in the Australian state of New South Wales held (in a 615 paragraph opinion) that the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst is liable for a $40 million (Aus.) loan (equivalent to $29M US) from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia which the bank extended, under a special policy for loans to certain religious organizations, solely on the basis of "a letter of acknowledgment" from the Bishop of Bathurst. The Diocese's Anglican Development Fund had reloaned $28 million (Aus.) of the funds to two start-up schools that failed.  The Sydney Morning Herald reports on the decision.