Archdiocese Audit?

[HabemusFrancis]

Do you think the bishops, cardinals, and Archdioceses of the Catholic Church, should have to submit to a yearly audit?

That is, publish accounts of how much money they recieved, release a report of how much and for what the money was spent, and so on? I for one think it would be good for the sake of transparency and honesty, and more of an involvment with the laity. What do you all think?

 

[HabemusFrancis]

Do you think the bishops, cardinals, and Archdioceses of the Catholic Church, should have to submit to a yearly audit?

That is, publish accounts of how much money they recieved, release a report of how much and for what the money was spent, and so on? I for one think it would be good for the sake of transparency and honesty, and more of an involvment with the laity. What do you all think?

 

[Gorgias]

Yes. My diocese releases these financial statements on an annual basis. (My parish does, too.)

In addition, every bishop is required to visit the Vatican for an ‘ad limina’ visit to the Pope every five years. At this visit, time is made for each bishop to speak personally with the Pope about what’s going on in his diocese.

 

[HabemusFrancis]

Did Benedict start this rule?

I am not sure every archdiocese does so. As great as John Paul II was, it seems benedict did surpass him on issues of monitoring church corruption ( including sex abuse god help us…)

 

[Joe_5859]

My first question would be “Submit to whom?”

I am all for transparency, but I would not be in favor of our dioceses being annually audited by the State. I can see many problems with such an arrangement.

That said, most dioceses I know already are pretty transparent. My diocese annually publishes their budget with pie graphs and everything showing money coming in and money going out. Grant it, it’s not a line-by-line, dollar-for-dollar itemization. But I don’t think that’s necessary nor prudent.

 

[Corki]

Do you think the bishops, cardinals, and Archdioceses of the Catholic Church, should have to submit to a yearly audit?

That is, publish accounts of how much money they recieved, release a report of how much and for what the money was spent, and so on? I for one think it would be good for the sake of transparency and honesty, and more of an involvment with the laity. What do you all think?

Two separate questions. I think all dioceses have audits. I am not sure if they are every year for every department but they are conducted regularly.

As for public reports, this is covered in Canon Law. Each council of Bishops determines what form this take and how often it is done.

 

[1ke]

Do you think the bishops, cardinals, and Archdioceses of the Catholic Church, should have to submit to a yearly audit?

That is, publish accounts of how much money they recieved, release a report of how much and for what the money was spent, and so on? I for one think it would be good for the sake of transparency and honesty, and more of an involvment with the laity. What do you all think?

Dioceses already do an annual financial report.

 

[tafan]

I would be surprised if a diocese anywhere in the US is not audited every year. And I am sure they all publish audited financial statements already. Ours is in the diocesan newspaper once a year. Parishes in our diocese are required to have an independent accounting firm do a financial review , though not a full audit it is still quite complete, every year and a full audit on change of pastors. We also are required to publish financial statements every year in our bulletin.

What is no longer a surprise is the number of people who completely ignore these public reports and then complain that thry are not done.