Business & Finance: Corporate Cardinal

A corporation is not a man but a man may be a corporation. One corporate-man is George Cardinal Mundelein, Archbishop of Chicago. In order to carry on the temporal affairs of his busy diocese this Prince of the Roman Catholic Church is “incorporated by law in order to give him legal capacities and advantages not possessed by natural persons.” He is technically known as a “corporation sole,” which means that he is the entire corporation with title to diocesan properties.

Last week Halsey, Stuart & Co., Chicago and New York underwriters, issued $5,250,000 Catholic Bishop of Chicago Serial Notes, maturing from 1937 to 1956.

The Cardinal, like other corporations, took advantage of low interest rates to do some refunding, got his early maturities at 2%, his latest at not more than 4%. The corporation’s total debt is estimated at $30,000,000 on properties with an estimated value of $200,000,000. No one in Chicago has better credit than the Cardinal, and Halsey, Stuart almost immediately disposed of nearly the entire refunding issue.

Though Roman Catholic financing rarely runs into the difficulties often associated with clerical commitments in general, no Roman Catholic Church is consecrated while it has a mortgage still outstanding. During the debtor period, the church is merely blessed. The ceremony of blessing permits the holding of services but does not permanently dedicate the building to God. When the church is debt-free, it is then irrevocably consecrated.