The Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced today, Monday, signed a measure to amend the general law of corporations to clarify the legal personality of churches and ecclesial institutions, the convenience and nature of the founding processes for the same and different purposes.
“This law recognizes that churches are not founded as non-profit organizations by joining, as their existence is determined by the will of the citizens to exercise both their right to free association and their right to liberty. collectively religious, ”emphasized the first leader in written communication.
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He explained that the measure emphasizes that the legal system of corporations, churches and ecclesiastical institutions are made invisible in their constitutional idiosyncrasy, as they are almost entirely equated with non-profit organizations, something that is common in both the Civil Code and the Law of Corporations. from 2009. This lack of recognition and clarity has led to conflict in both judicial and administrative headquarters. While ecclesiastical institutions are not granted any kind of privilege or exception, it is believed that there is a trend of academic legal debates, at the level of civil law, when it comes to the value of establishing citizens’ associations established by the constitution in their existence are recognized.
The United States Supreme Court has already ruled that freedom of religion requires the recognition that churches have a range of autonomy that limits the state’s ability to intervene compared to the freedom with which it can intervene in civilian businesses. In addition, he has affirmed that the constitution requires the state to recognize some sort of jurisdiction to the church, distinct and separate from that of the state, so that the actions of both do not interfere with each other.
It is recognized that there are churches that have or may obtain their corporate status other than as provided by the Civil Code and the Puerto Rico Corporation Law, such as international treaties or special laws.
The amendment allows churches and ecclesiastical institutions to use the business model of the “non-profit Corporate sole”, which is defined as a legal entity of a corporate nature consisting of taking up a Church position simultaneously held by a natural person. is taken. given to manage patrimonial matters.
“Until now, at the time of incorporation, churches only had the option to use the only business model offered by the 2009 corporation law for nonprofits. But the reality is that this general business model is partly suitable for the congregational type of church, because it is less consistent with the nature of a church with a hierarchical structure. Sometimes when conducting economic activities with banks or private companies, hierarchical churches have difficulty explaining that their business decisions are not made by majority vote of their members, as in any other civil corporation, but by hierarchical authority. who runs the church, ”explained Vázquez Garced.
In the process of establishing churches and ecclesiastical institutions, the state will not make qualifying or evaluative judgments about religious documents or the legal ways in which churches understand and configure themselves, as long as they are not contrary to law and order. public. This does not relieve the churches and ecclesiastical institutions that have been established from the responsibility of registering legal entities, but rather adjusts so that the required information is consistent with the constitutional religious nature of the organization.
In particular, the churches and ecclesiastical institutions that have been established must inform the registry of legal persons: their official name; the purposes and religious structure of the organization; the natural person representing them, the extent of their powers and responsibilities, such as the manner of their election or succession; the physical address where the head office is located. This new register is positive in that it gives every citizen the opportunity to objectively know the ways of acting in the society of the different companies, so that at the time of interacting with them they know who is doing it.
Father Carlos Pérez Toro thanked the signing of this law, which “for the first time in our history recognizes the legal peculiarity of churches and ecclesial institutions and the scale of their incorporation processes. The decisions of the highest judicial forums demanded in this regard to temper our rule of law. Without a doubt, the entire faithful community of our island must thank our governor, not only for signing up to this very important project, but also for the passionate and noble way in which, during her public service, she defends the rights of the faithful to their space of diversity. contribute to the well-being of our Puerto Rican homeland ”.