MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's government handed over a list of almost 1,000 properties claimed by the Catholic Church on contested legal grounds to a federation of local authorities on Thursday, taking a first step towards resolving long-running feuds over ownership.
The conflict stems from a law introduced by former conservative Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in 1998 that allowed the Church to register properties linked to religious practice as possessions, even without proof of ownership.
