February 9, 1967

Honorable Joe Resweber CountyAttorney Harris County Houston, Texas Dear Mr. R&weber: Opinion No. M-21 Re: Taxstatue of building ownedby the Diocese of Oalveeton-Houston, Roman Catholic Church. In connection with your request for the opinion of this office on the above-captioned matter, you have furnished u6 with numerous facts. The is knowna8 the “Chanbery,

### pperty which occasioned your request located at 1700 SanJacinto Street, Houston, Texas. Wequote the following excerpt from the MemorandumBrief which accompanied your request:

“The Aseeeaor and Collector of Taxes, Rarrie County, Texas, by letter, furnished the following Information:

“‘It is noted that the City of ’ Houston has rejected the request for the bulldlng, knownaa the Chanaery, which is used for the following purposes: t“(l)

))'(2)

"'(3)

“‘(4) Office to conduct the necessary work of maintaining the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, including its seminary andorphanage; Office’of Superintendent of Catholic Schools of the entire diocese; Office of the Matrimonial Tribunal of the diocese; Offices 

### forthe Catholic Youth Organization, the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, the Confraternity

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### “I(5)

“‘(6)

‘I’(7) ‘of Christian Doctrine, the National Council of Catholic Men, the National Council of Catholic Womenand the Diocesan Catholic paper; Meeting rooms for Catholic organizations; Residence of the Chancellor and three other priests; Achapel where religious services for the public are held.I” In the Memorandum B??lef which you have furnished us, you have concluded that the property in gueation is not entitled to an exemption from state and county advalorem taxes under Section 5of Article 7150, Vernon’s Clvll Statutes.

Section 2 of Article VIII of the Texas Constitution authorizes the Legislature to exempt certain classes and types of property from taxation. Thepertinent provieions of this section read as follows:the Legislature mayby general

laws, eximl;t from taxation actual places or [of] religious worehlp, &o ’any property ownedby a church or by a strictly religious society for the exclusive use as a dwelling place for the ministry of such church or religious society, andwhich yields no revenue whatever to such church or religious society; provided that such exemption shall not extend to more property than is reasonably necessary for a dwelling place and in no event more than one acre of land;

. . .” Thefollowing provisions of Article 7150, V.C.S., were enacted in pursuance to the above quoted authorization: :.,

“The foi‘iowing property shall be exempt from taxation; to-wit:

“1

. Schoole and Churches -- Public School houses and actual places of religious

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,Iionorable Joe Resweber, Page 3 (M-21)

worship, also anyproperty ownedby a church or by a strictly religious society, for the exclusive use as a dwelling place for the ministers of such church or religious society, the books andfurniture therein and the grounds attached to suah buildings neaeasary for the proper occupancy, use andenjoyment of the same, andwhich yields norevenue whatever to such church or religious society; provided that such exemption as to the dwelling place for the minlstars shall not extend to more property than Is reasonably necessary for a dwelling place and In no event more than one acre of land

. . . .‘I Anadditional provision for exemption is contained in 

### Article7150b, V.C.S., whioh reads as follows:

“There Is hereby exempted from taxation any property ownedexclusively and in fee by a church for the exclusive use as a dwelling place for the ministry of such church andwhich property ylelde norevenue whatever to such church; provided that such exemption shall not extend to more property than is reasonably necessary for a dwelling place and in ‘5 no event more than one acre of land; andprovlded further, that the fact that the ministry uses a portion of the dwelling as their study, library or office shall not prevent the property from being considered as being used exclusively as a dwelling place. For purposes of this Act,

‘church’ includes a strictly religious society; and the ‘ministry of such church’ meansthose persons whose principal occupation is that of serving In the clergy, ministry, priesthood or preebytery of an organized church or religion, c whether they are assigned to a local church

,parish, w-wwgue , cathedral or temple or to some larger unit of the church organization and whether they perform administrative functions or not. ” In reaching your conclusion that exemption should be ,denied, you makethe following statement:

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“The property in question and the organii zition occupying sameis in manyrespects similar to the property for which an exemption from State and County advalorem taxaWedo not regard Daughters of St. Paul, Inc., as decl-

‘sive of the question here under consideration. In that case the court was concerned with whether a building ownedby a ,non-profit corporation whose prlmary purpose wasdistribution of RomanCatholic literature andreligious articles principally by sale but also by gift to the general public wasexempt from advalorem taxes. Thebuilding wasused exclusively by the corporation for sale of books and for nuns’ living quarters. The court held that, under the facts, the property waanot exempt as an “institution of purely public charity” within the meaning of that phrase as it is used both in Section 2 of Article VIII of the Texas Constitution and Section 7 of Article 7150, V.C.S.

Since there la a chapel In the Chancery where religious services for the public are held, wethink different provisions of both the Constitution and the statutes ars applicable, to-wit: the provisions for “actual places of religious worship.” We assume that In order for religious services for the public to be held, the Roman.Cathollc liturgy andritual la practiced regularly in the Chancery, that 10 is open to the public and meets all requirements of canon law relative to churches. It IS certainly not uncommonfor churches to have rooms available for other church activities In addition to the sanctuary. Theother activities which you have described andwhich are being carried on in the Chancery are not inconsistent with work of the Church, andwedo not think that the fact that they are carried on In the samebuilding which houses the actual place of religious ,worship results in a loss of the tax exemption.

Weare further of the opinion that the Chancery might well be exempt under the provisions of Article 7150b, which specifically provide that the “ministry of such church” includes persons serving in the clergy, ministry, priesthood or presbytery of anorganized church or religion, and further specifically provide that they need not be assigned to a local church parish in order to qualify for the exemption, but maybe aaelgned to

.‘,.‘~ “~sople ,larger unit of the church organieation, as is true in the ease here under consideration.

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Honorable Joe Resweber, Page 5 (M-21)

Wedo not think that the fact that the Chancery is not used exclusively as a dwelling place by the Chancellor would preclude exemption. It seems clear that the Legislature intended that the living quarters for the ministry of a church were to be exempt; so wecannot see that If a parsonage were attached to a church It would lose its exempt status as not being used "exclusively" as a dwelling because of the church, or that the church would lose Its exemption as anactual place of rellglous worship because of the parsonage.

Analogous reasoning was used in Attorney Qeneral's Opinion No. O-4909 (1943), which held that a school which contained a chapel wasexempt from ad valorem taxes, Wequote the following from page 2:

"Clearly the property in question is tax exempt unless It be decided that the use of the chapel for religious exercises, In addition to the use of the entire building for school purposes, destroys the exemption. Thebuilding if used exclusively for either purpose would be tax exempt andweare not prepared to hold that the concurrence of the two exempt uses renders the property liable to taxation. " Attorney General's Opinion No. O-6211 (1944) held exempt from advalorem taxes abuilding ownedby a church situated on the sametract of land as the church building anddwelling place of the minister. Thehall in question was used for "parish meetings, meetings of Catholic Societies, Maternity Guild, Catholic Action, Catholic organizations, Catholic Union of Texas, religious instruction to children, socials; plays andonce to twice yearly picnic dinners and dances are held;"

In holding, as wedo, that the Chancery is exempt from advaloreti taxes, wespecifically limit our holding to the partl,cularfacta submitted for our consideration. SUMMARY Under the submitted facts, the building knownas the "Chancery" ownedby the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, RomanCatholic Church,

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is exempt from ad valorem tax. Section 2, Article VIII, Texas Constitution; y+cp; 7150 and 7150b, Title 122, Ch. )

. . . Ycp@s very truly,

C. MARTIN General of Texas Prepared byMarietta McGregor Payne Assistant Attorney! General APPROVED: OPINIONCOMMITTEE Hawthorne Philllps, Chairman W.V. Geppert, Co-Chairman Arthur Sandlin Ralph Rash Malcolm Quick, Kerns Taylor Staff Legal Assistant A. J. Carubbi, Jr.

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