Abstract
The article discusses the issue of the sale of church property according to the regulations of the Romanian Orthodox Church and the catholic canon law.The arrangements governing the alienation of temporal goods of the Church has numerous fundamental propinquities between Orthodox and Catholic canon law, derived particularly from primary principles of the Christian Church.
In both religions the alienation of temporal goods is bound by common elements, namely: the purpose of alienation, the property to be alienated, the enforcement of civil law, the alienation of property with authorization from hierarchical superiors, the assessment of the goods to be alienated. Any sale of temporal goods will be made only when the vital interest of the Church justifies such an operation or provides real advantages to the Church. In principle, are excluded these goods that are inalienable, imprescriptibly, such as precious assets and sacred property (the Orthodox Church), and certain goods sacred in the Catholic Church (e.g. the holy relics).
The limitations are made only by an infringement of divine law's rules by civil rights, or when canon law can impose special conditions for the alienation of certain categories of goods. In both systems of canon law, any time disposal of assets by juridical persons in the Church hierarchy should be allowed, most times it is needed for an ad validitatem form of alienation, an element of valid consent to the sale or donation, and goods can be evaluated prior to sale. The procedure of sale is treated compared to the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church to their canon-level administrative units (parishes, dioceses), with an overview quorums to be achieved and the approvals obtained in order the sale will take effect.
The article also addresses the issue of the priests' right of first refusal when acquiring ecclesiastical goods as well as the issue of compliance with the imperative norms of the Romanian civil law.