Money back

Stephen McGinty’s article (3 March), which raised the spectre of Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s finances being scrutinised, triggered a further question. In the early 1990s I attended mass in Saint Martin of Tours Roman Catholic Church in Tranent.

The parish priest, Father Richard Somers, clearly asked us to rejoice in assuming ownership of this church having, as parishioners over a 25-year period, repaid the debt accrued by the building of a new church and house.

If the church estate in Tranent is owned by its parishioners, does it mean that all Roman Catholic Church estates in parishes within Scotland are the possession of their registered worshippers?

If that be the case can these properties be sold and the money donated by the congregations over decades be returned to them as bona fide shareholders?

Arthur Greenan

McCall Gardens

East Linton