Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament: Charity Commission decision - summary
Published 28 June 2012
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2012
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/confraternity-of-the-blessed-sacrament/confraternity-of-the-blessed-sacrament-charity-commission-decision-summary
1. The charities
The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (“the Confraternity”): the charity’s purposes are the advancement of the Catholic faith in the Anglican Tradition.
The Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham (“the Ordinariate”): the charity’s purpose is closely connected to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham which established a structure that enabled former Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The charity was established to advance the catholic religion by any of the charitable activities undertaken by or in connection with the Personal Ordinariate.
2. The background
The Commission received a substantial number of complaints about a grant of £1m which the trustees of the Confraternity had made to the Ordinariate.
3. Our regulatory concerns
- Whether the trustees’ decision to make the grant was validly made (in particular, whether the trustee body was inquorate because the trustees were subject to a “personal interest” which meant they were not entitled to act)
- Whether the grant was wholly within the objects of the Confraternity
4. The decision review
During our engagement with the charities the Commission set out its provisional conclusions. Both charities co-operated fully with our staff but, having taken legal advice, disagreed with our provisional conclusions. For this reason, we asked a member of our Senior Management Team to review our initial findings under our decision review procedure.
5. Conclusions
Our review concluded that:
- The decision to make a grant to the Ordinariate was taken at an inquorate meeting, the majority of the trustees having a (financial) personal interest in the decision. It was also in breach of the charity’s governing document.
- The meeting being inquorate, the decision was invalid. There was no valid exercise of the power to make a gift to the Ordinariate and the payment was unauthorised.
- The gift is held upon constructive trust by the Ordinariate for the Confraternity.
- The objects of the Ordinariate are wider than those of the Confraternity. A gift given to the Ordinariate without restriction could be used for purposes which have no connection with the Anglican tradition at all.
- The precise meaning of Anglican Tradition is unclear but there is substantial doubt whether the Confraternity could make a grant to the Ordinariate (even with restrictions) which could be applied by the Ordinariate consistently with the objects of the Confraternity.
- The Commission therefore considered the trustees of both charities were under a duty to take action to ensure the repayment of the money.
6. Outcomes
- We have been informed that the grant has been returned in full (with interest) by the Ordinariate of its own volition.
- We continue to work with the charities to ensure that all our regulatory concerns have been addressed.