All parishes in the Diocese of Orange MUST pay 10% of EVERYTHING that goes into the Sunday Collection to Bishop Brown. He gets 10% of all Sunday donations PLUS a REQUIRED PSA at each parish (62 parishes in D of O). PSA per parish runs from small parishes ($36,000 per year) to large parishes ($200,000 plus).
Yeah, Bishop Brown is really “The Godfather” in disguise - stealing money from churches for his personal “slush fund”!!!
Oh, brother.
The truth is that all parishes in the WORLD are asked to give a tithe (10%) to the diocesan office (which are in turn asked to give a tithe (10%), going all the way to support Rome.)
So what? To heck with the diocese? To heck with Rome? To heck with the Biblical teaching that we are to materially support the church & help the needy (poor, hungry, homeless, jailed, etc.)?
The PSA (“Pastoral Services Appeal”) is a once a year request (not “REQUIREMENT”) for donations beyond the 10% “tithe” - which come voluntarily from parishioners. All donations can be legally only used to pay for diocese level programs & ministries (like Religious Ed, Catholic Charities of OC, Catholic Deaf Community, Pastoral & Diaconate ministries, Seminarian education, & others.) Anything more is “rebated” back to the parishes to be used for their own ministries, charities & building programs.
According to publicly available documents, the grand total of all PSA donations last year was about $11.7 million, half of which ($5.3 million) was given back to the parishes themselves.
In case OCWEEKLY “forgot”
to provide links to the documents, here they are:
rcbo.org/offices/images/pdfs/PSAJan.FinalReport1-10-2007.pdf and
rcbo.org/financials/Financial_Audit_FY06.pdf
The people in D of Orange have to put their donations in a special envelope or write specifically what the check is to be used for (for electric bill, for a new roof, for new carpeting, etc) if they don’t want to keep paying B. Brown and his high priced lawyers and PR firms.
Again, so what? Every church I’ve ever seen asks people to note what (if anything) they specifically want their donation to be used for. Every church I’ve ever seen asks for people to somehow give their name and address with their donation, so the church can send them a receipt at the end of the year, for tax deduction purposes.
Or are you upset that people might have to do 2 seconds worth of work to keep their money from going to the Bishop’s supposed “slush fund”?
And most of his priests do NOT live on parish grounds - they’ve got their own private homes in gated and guarded communities.
Wanna back that claim up with a list of all the priests in the diocese and where they live?
Most priests in the diocese DO live on parish grounds.
Brown doesn’t, but then, he’s not assigned to a parish. Same with most of the priests who are assigned to the diocese instead of individual parishes.
Yes, Bishop Brown does have a very expensive property. Then again, he uses it to have people of all nationalities and leaderships who come to the diocese, stay there for respite. I’d agree that he could probably serve a better example if he didn’t live in such a wealthy area, but he shares what the laity has paid for to provide him – and no one has shown that he is somehow “suspect” for not living in a rectory.
I understand and agree that we should be concerned about liturgical abuses & teaching error, whether by priests or bishops.
I admire your zeal, but wouldn’t it be better served by identifying which are true violations before tearing our garments and gnashing our teeth, before we actually check out claims of “impropriety and abuse”.
Whatever is true, should be taken to the priest or bishop. If they refuse to listen, we “take it to the church”, by writing to the Archbishop and Vatican. If the one committing error still will not repent, then “let them be like tax collectors and gentiles”, and find another parish/diocese that is in communion with Rome.
We should all pray both for our clergy & each other.
Respectfully,
Chris
