Parish Debt during Mass?

  • Thread starter Thread starter paulp1002
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

paulp1002

Guest
While I visited my parents, I decided to go to the local parish by their home, since I couldn’t make it to the Mass at my Parish. It’s a new Parish, about a year old. It started off normal, the Father gave his Homily which lasted about two minutes, then talked about the Parish’s debt from construction, maintence etc… for well over 30 minutes. It wasn’t really related to the Gospel scripture or to his Homily, it was more along the lines of him asking for more donations. I know it’s not something that occurs every Sunday, but was that the right time to spend so much time on the subject?

At my Parish, they do the annoucements at the end of Mass, I felt that that would have been more approriate. I was kind of disappointed, I enjoy listening to the Homilies for the inspiration, Word of God etc… but I felt like Parish’s problems should have been brought up at a different time, such as a special meeting.

Am I wrong? I’m just curious. 🤷
 
We are 5 weeks from the end of the Church year, so all parishes are wrapping up their financial statements and presenting them to the parish. Our financial talk lasted same, but our bulliten included color coded pie charts of spending and expenses statements, the whole financial picture.
Our Parish ended up $158k in the black, but to accomplish that the teachers at the school and the priest forego any salary increases, and the AC is pushing 30 yrs and will be replaced next year, so there goes the excess.
 
Normally the announcements on debts, maintanance are said at the end of Mass not during the homily. During homily everybody will be geared to be inspired by the word.
 
Our priest does it during announcements, when he discusses the progress of renovations. Never in the homily, unless there is a teaching that comes out from it.
 
Ours is before the homily too… I don’t like it.

The worst was when one of the members of the parish got up and said that there club had collected two soccer balls for the Christmas party so they would be selling one of them after Mass (right before the homily). I was shocked by that one.
 
I’ve been to a Mass before where the priest actually passed copies of the financial statement up and down the pews for us all to read during his financial talk. I thought that went a bit overboard. Other than that— where else is he supposed to make statements like that? How many of those people will show up for a financial meeting on a Tuesday evening? Although, I think it’d be a bit more respectful to talk about it during the announcements after the Mass, but he’s got to say things everyone needs to hear when everyone is there.
 
In our diocese the priests are encourage to make a full disclosure financial report each year, which includes talking about it at mass, usually at homily time. The problem with waiting until the end is that many people leave before the announcements…the same is true before mass, many come late. Financial support of the parish is a precept of the Church and if the homily time is the best time to talk about it then so be it. It can be used as a tool to catechize people about their obligation and also to make them aware of where their money is going. Yes, it is in the bulletin but in all honesty many people do not read the bulletin. This financial pitch is made once a year, usually around this time. We ask the parishioners to prayerfully consider what they are giving to the parish, the parish needs and financial obligations, and ask them to consider giving more (or even less if they themselves are in financial need). If you read St. Paul, he too asked for financial support of his mission.
 
paulp1002 said:
While I visited my parents, I decided to go to the local parish by their home, since I couldn’t make it to the Mass at my Parish. It’s a new Parish, about a year old. It started off normal, the Father gave his Homily which lasted about two minutes, then talked about the Parish’s debt from construction, maintence etc… for well over 30 minutes. It wasn’t really related to the Gospel scripture or to his Homily, it was more along the lines of him asking for more donations. I know it’s not something that occurs every Sunday, but was that the right time to spend so much time on the subject?

At my Parish, they do the annoucements at the end of Mass, I felt that that would have been more approriate. I was kind of disappointed, I enjoy listening to the Homilies for the inspiration, Word of God etc… but I felt like Parish’s problems should have been brought up at a different time, such as a special meeting.

Am I wrong? I’m just curious. 🤷
Click to expand...
I’ve struggled with this over the years and arrived at the conclusion there is really no better time or method to present the information. Few would attend a special meeting and a good percentage would simply toss a handout or bulletin insert. A financial presentation could loosely be called a sermon on stewardship, could it not?
 
There will not be any homilies nor financial reports to complain about if the parish is shuttered because it could not over come it’s debt.
 
In my opinion it is a bit of a sentimental reaction to be appalled by the pastor’s occasional need to address pratical matters affecting the parish during the liturgy. People are too quick to get too offended by too little.

If the priest addressed the matter at the end of Mass, would you have stayed to listen to him for 30 minutes? I wouldn’t have.
 
Unfortunately, most Roman Catholics do not financially support their churches like Protestants do. It is not at all uncommon for Protestant Churches to REQUIRE tithing.

It is neither inappropriate, nor uncalled for, for a Pastor to give a homily about the financial aspects of the church. This can be, and should be, tied directly into the Gospel. If the congregation is not financially supporting the Parish, it takes a LOT more than a simple announcement to get them to get off of their wallets.

It takes a great deal of money to have an active and dynamic parish. Staff have to be paid. It takes cash money to pay for heat, lights, etc. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Until Catholics develop the habit of actually SUPPORTING their church, it will be necessary for the Priests (and Bishops) to remind them that this is their OBLIGATION, not something that should be sluffed off. A $2-5 weekly donation to the Church just does not cut it in today’s world. Most Catholics COULD afford to give the church a LOT more than they do. They just are not in the habit of actually doing it.

If people truly can not afford to give money, then they can give labor, etc. We have people in our parish that do all of the grounds keeping, help clean the church, help cook at Parish functions, etc.
 
The_Old_Medic said:
Unfortunately, most Roman Catholics do not financially support their churches like Protestants do. It is not at all uncommon for Protestant Churches to REQUIRE tithing.

It is neither inappropriate, nor uncalled for, for a Pastor to give a homily about the financial aspects of the church. This can be, and should be, tied directly into the Gospel. If the congregation is not financially supporting the Parish, it takes a LOT more than a simple announcement to get them to get off of their wallets.

It takes a great deal of money to have an active and dynamic parish. Staff have to be paid. It takes cash money to pay for heat, lights, etc. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Until Catholics develop the habit of actually SUPPORTING their church, it will be necessary for the Priests (and Bishops) to remind them that this is their OBLIGATION, not something that should be sluffed off. A $2-5 weekly donation to the Church just does not cut it in today’s world. Most Catholics COULD afford to give the church a LOT more than they do. They just are not in the habit of actually doing it.

If people truly can not afford to give money, then they can give labor, etc. We have people in our parish that do all of the grounds keeping, help clean the church, help cook at Parish functions, etc.
Click to expand...
Hahahah, my former pastor if he had his own way would have imposed tithing. Its one thing he admired in Protestant churches. I guess because of all the headaches he have over church renovations. We have an old but poorly maintained parish building and it costs a lot of money to fix. Worst is the funds just aren’t there.
 
During the Mass is the only time people are ‘trapped,’ so to speak, and have to listen to any unfortunate financial news. The parish needs to hear about this, and as another poster mentioned, very few would go to a special meeting.
 
The_Old_Medic said:
Unfortunately, most Roman Catholics do not financially support their churches like Protestants do. It is not at all uncommon for Protestant Churches to REQUIRE tithing.QUOTE]

Or what? Are the people who do not tithe excommunicated, shunned; what right does a church pastor have to decide what the parishioners can afford to donate?
Click to expand...
 
Bob_Aliano said:
Or what? Are the people who do not tithe excommunicated, shunned; what right does a church pastor have to decide what the parishioners can afford to donate?
Click to expand...
In some denominations I know, yes they are excommunicated. Or for a better term, excluded.

In some evangelical circles, I think tithing is a barrier to entry. If from the beginning you do not agree to tithing, then you cannot be seriously be part of the Church. Besides, as sola scriptura followers, they’ll simply show that passage where Abraham gave 10% of everything he had to the Lord and they’ll obey.
 
October is the time parishes do their census of people, and also usually when financial reports for the previous fiscal year are released, when pledges or stewardship commitments not only of financial support but volunteer and service are also made.

What other method would you prefer the priest use to address the parishioners gathered together on the topic of finances, which concerns all of them?
 
ConstantineTG said:
In some denominations I know, yes they are excommunicated. Or for a better term, excluded.

In some evangelical circles, I think tithing is a barrier to entry. If from the beginning you do not agree to tithing, then you cannot be seriously be part of the Church. Besides, as sola scriptura followers, they’ll simply show that passage where Abraham gave 10% of everything he had to the Lord and they’ll obey.
Click to expand...
Fascinating! At our house we do a combination of monetary, charitable and participatory contribution, hard to put a value on the participation but I’m guessing we technically tithe as a minimum. I wonder if these demanding churches have some scale by which they judge the value of volunteer efforts.
 
Bob_Aliano said:
I’ve struggled with this over the years and arrived at the conclusion there is really no better time or method to present the information. Few would attend a special meeting and a good percentage would simply toss a handout or bulletin insert. A financial presentation could loosely be called a sermon on stewardship, could it not?
Click to expand...
A clever priest can make an excellent homily out of the need for sacrificial giving and stewardship in our lives while presenting his appeal. I heard one last week at my daughter’s parish.😃
 
At my brother’s parish when the parishioners wanted a new school the parish council mailed out commitment cards, then in about two weeks the pastor himself and the parish council members went personally to peoples homes to collect them. The pastor wasn’t trying to be a pest, but if the people wanted a new school, he wanted to make sure he had the commitment to build it. I thought it was great!
 
Bob_Aliano said:
Fascinating! At our house we do a combination of monetary, charitable and participatory contribution, hard to put a value on the participation but I’m guessing we technically tithe as a minimum. I wonder if these demanding churches have some scale by which they judge the value of volunteer efforts.
Click to expand...
I haven’t really explored it in detail how a particular Evangelical denomination does its tithing. My close relatives are members but I think its an uneasy subject to be talking about.

What I know is this cultic sect in the Philippines called Iglesia ni Cristo (literally: Church of Christ) which is a restorationist group similar to the LDS or SDA. I know that not giving what is due to their church can result in expulsion, and expulsion means that your name will be striken off the book. The book they speak about is the book of names of people that are members of the church, and thus will be assumed into heaven during the rapture. So basically if you get expelled you go to hell. So that is a huge spiritual blackmail by their church to garner funds. And mind you, being in the Philippines most of their members are poor to begin with. And yet they scrape the bottom of the barrel just to give to their church.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top