 Controversy has arisen in the United States over the suppression of parishes, and over the disposition of parochial assets and liabilities following such a change.Some bishops have interpreted suppression as equivalent to the extinction of a parish under canon 123 (as due to war or disaster), in which case the assets and liabilities of the former parish revert to the diocese.In most cases, however, the local Catholic population was stable, and could not be said to be extinct, and so they should have been distributed to the successor parishes, as the Congregation for the Clergy emphasized in 2006 letter to the USCCB.