D
drafdog
Guest
Dear Pio S,
The church, at least in the USA, is a corporation, or more properly, a group of corporations. Each diocese is a corporation which is vested in the office of the bishop. In short the bishop is the corporation and is responsible for all activities of the corporation. This includes all the financial activities of the parishes and the diocese as a whole.
The biggest problem we have as a church is that nowhere in the training of a priest is there a business administration, accounting, or human resource management curriculum. I am sure that I don’t see how we can effectively manage the amounts of money given in various ways and for various purposes without the head of the corporation having proper training.
You asked about the availability of financial records and some have given you possible leads to find them. Please note that a diocese may not have a budget, an accounting system, an oversight committee or anything else to ensure the adherence to sound fiscal management. The church relies on the parishioners to provide whatever funding is needed but there are no rules that the bishops need to follow in handling those funds. Look what has happened with the scandal over the few priests who sexually abuse minors. I heard recently that four or five dioceses have declaired bankruptcy because past bishops have not practiced sound human resource management proceedures.
As for the money moving “up” the organization. The individual parishes send a portion of the collection to the diocese on a regular basis. The diocese in turn sends money to the Vatican. There are also special collections for the diocese (such as Bishop’s relief) and the Vatican (Peter’s Pence).
As for spending too much money on church buildings. My problem is not the spending to build the church in the first place but the lack of spending to maintain the building once it is finished. I recall a beautiful stone church that had to be demolished because over the years the masonry had deteriorated to the point that the bell tower was about to collapse, and it was too dangerous and costly to attempt to remedy the problem. We all want the church building to be a credit to our love of God. But that means we need to spend a reasonable amount of money to maintain it.
We are the church. If our leaders handling our moneys are doing poorly at it, it is because we have let them get away with it. Perhaps now is a good time to insist on regular disclosure to the faithful about how our moneys are spent.
Matthew
The church, at least in the USA, is a corporation, or more properly, a group of corporations. Each diocese is a corporation which is vested in the office of the bishop. In short the bishop is the corporation and is responsible for all activities of the corporation. This includes all the financial activities of the parishes and the diocese as a whole.
The biggest problem we have as a church is that nowhere in the training of a priest is there a business administration, accounting, or human resource management curriculum. I am sure that I don’t see how we can effectively manage the amounts of money given in various ways and for various purposes without the head of the corporation having proper training.
You asked about the availability of financial records and some have given you possible leads to find them. Please note that a diocese may not have a budget, an accounting system, an oversight committee or anything else to ensure the adherence to sound fiscal management. The church relies on the parishioners to provide whatever funding is needed but there are no rules that the bishops need to follow in handling those funds. Look what has happened with the scandal over the few priests who sexually abuse minors. I heard recently that four or five dioceses have declaired bankruptcy because past bishops have not practiced sound human resource management proceedures.
As for the money moving “up” the organization. The individual parishes send a portion of the collection to the diocese on a regular basis. The diocese in turn sends money to the Vatican. There are also special collections for the diocese (such as Bishop’s relief) and the Vatican (Peter’s Pence).
As for spending too much money on church buildings. My problem is not the spending to build the church in the first place but the lack of spending to maintain the building once it is finished. I recall a beautiful stone church that had to be demolished because over the years the masonry had deteriorated to the point that the bell tower was about to collapse, and it was too dangerous and costly to attempt to remedy the problem. We all want the church building to be a credit to our love of God. But that means we need to spend a reasonable amount of money to maintain it.
We are the church. If our leaders handling our moneys are doing poorly at it, it is because we have let them get away with it. Perhaps now is a good time to insist on regular disclosure to the faithful about how our moneys are spent.
Matthew