trusteeism, in Roman Catholicism, a controversy concerning lay control of parish administration in the late 18th and 19th centuries in the United States. Several state legislatures had recognized elected lay representatives (trustees) as the legal administrators of parishes. Although church law did not forbid lay participation in some aspects of church life, it was emphatic concerning the bishop’s prerogative of appointing and dismissing the pastors of parishes. Crises thus arose when trustees invoked civil law to dismiss unpopular pastors, sometimes because they were from different ethnic backgrounds than their parishioners. Trusteeism spread across 20 states in the East, South, and Midwest. Occasionally, trustees joined with anti-Roman Catholic groups (i.e., the Know-Nothing Party) to encourage civil legislation favouring their cause.
Trusteeism faded as American bishops gradually reasserted their prerogative under church law to appoint pastors through the use of legislation passed at a series of church councils in Baltimore. The controversy caused the bishops thereafter to be wary of lay leadership in parish administration.