Pennsylvania Statutes Title 10 P.S. Charities and Welfare § 81. Church property to be subject to control of officers or authorities thereof; validation of certain charters

Whensoever any property, real or personal, has heretofore been or shall hereafter be bequeathed, devised, or conveyed to any ecclesiastical corporation, bishop, ecclesiastic, or other person, for the use of any church, congregation, or religious society, for or in trust for religious worship or sepulture, or for use by said church, congregation, or religious society, for a school, educational institution, convent, rectory, parsonage, hall, auditorium, or the maintenance of any of these, the same shall be taken and held subject to the control and disposition of such officers or authorities of such church, congregation, or religious society, having a controlling power according to the rules, regulations, usages, or corporate requirements of such church, congregation, or religious society, which control and disposition shall be exercised in accordance with and subject to the rules and regulations, usages, canons, discipline and requirements of the religious body, denomination or organization to which such church, congregation, or religious society shall belong, but nothing herein contained shall authorize the diversion of any property from the purposes, uses, and trusts to which it may have been heretofore lawfully dedicated, or to which it may hereafter, consistently herewith, be lawfully dedicated: And provided, All charters heretofore granted for any church, congregation, or religious society, without incorporating therein the requirement that the property, real and personal, of such corporation, shall be taken, held, and enure subject to the control and disposition as herein provided, but which are in other respects good and valid, and shall be in all respects as good and valid, for all purposes, as if the said requirement had been inserted therein when the said charters were originally granted; and the title to all property, real and personal, heretofore bequeathed, devised, or conveyed to such church, congregation, or religious society, or which may have heretofore been granted or conveyed by such corporation, shall be firm and stable forever, with like effect as though the said requirements had been contained in the charter of such corporation when the same was originally granted: Provided, That all property, real and personal, held by such existing corporation, shall enure, and be taken and held, subject to the control and disposition as herein provided, with like effect as though such provision had been inserted in the charter of such corporation when originally granted, any other or different provision therein notwithstanding.