Parish Income & Expenses

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The Parish is in the red (not by a large amount) and will have to dig into savings. It’s not sustainable and is stressful to think about. The Priest asked us to prayerfully consider our tithing. I know I will certainly reevaluate my approach on this. Do you think this is a Church wide problem?
 
My Parish has also asked us to consider our offerings and tithe. We are still short on our CSA.
 
Same thing at my wife’s parish. The priest said the same thing…and even gave us an equation to figure out how far in “back offerings” each family is, and that we should look at making a gift to the church to “catch up”.

By his math, our family is $80K behind. I don’t think we’ll be catching up.
 
How can a family be “behind” in tithing when there isn’t a set amount each person should give? This assumes that people aren’t being charitable? Is this really an assumption anyone should be making?
 
IDK, if I remember it was based on the 10% rule and if you haven’t been been giving 10% a family could consider themselves “behind”. A family could then figure out how far “behind” they were and provide the parish with a monetary gift to “catch up”.
 
10% isn’t a rule as far as I know. I believe that is referenced in the OT (Numbers I think) but it does apply to Catholics.
 
People going in (converts and Catholicism by Osmosis)] MINUS ]People going out (death, de-convert, anger about issue)] = negative value

That negative value times how much each person gives equals the problem.
 
At my parish the priest and financial guy who spoke after Mass said the parish was in the red since expenses keep rising and the number of parishioners, the number of parishioners who bother going to Mass regularly, and the offerings are down and might have to eventually close its doors and merge with a neighboring parish. It’s a beautiful old Polish Church in an inner ring big city suburban small town that has seen better days.
 
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Yes, we heard expenses keep increasing too. What are the primary expenses a Parish has?
 
Makes sense, all fixed costs I imagine, probably hard to make many cuts.
 
I mentioned this in another thread.
I am from an Eastern rite parish that had a married priest and the parish maintained a house to accommodate him and his family.
All the expenses doubled having a church and a second property. Twice the heating bills, water bills, snow clearing, taxes, roofs that needed to be replaced, furnaces, plumbing issues and so on. The parish emptied it’s bank account and the property was sold, the church sold. It was a big demand on parishioners who maybe were older, who were raising their families, who had more than 2 children, who were single and alone.

Conversations about married priests must take into account the financial burden that is placed on a parish, especially in these days of attrition of numbers.

The current RC parish we are in posted in the bulletin how much a month the parish requires to pay the bills, how much came in over the weekend, and how much money was short this week. So here we are.
 
I’m surprised that fell directly on the parish rather than the Diocese.
 
TC3033 said:
I’m surprised that fell directly on the parish rather than the Diocese.
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Were you referring to my post?
A parish closed before ours. Apparently the Diocese told them ‘if only you had come to us sooner’. So, hearing this through the grapevine, our parish went to the diocese who quickly arranged a meeting with our parish to make it clear that no help was coming. They simply said you need to ask the parishioners to give more.
 
I guess I was just surprised that the priest’s (and family) room and board fell directly on the parish and not the diocese.
 
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TC3033 said:
I guess I was just surprised that the priest’s (and family) room and board fell directly on the parish and not the diocese.
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In every parish I have been in, my understanding was that the parish is responsible for it’s own finances, not the diocese. Is it different in yours?
 
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TBH, no clue. As far as the basic electric, heat, etc… I figured that was on the parish. It was my understanding that the priest was a Diocesan employee (as they are appointed by the Diocese) so I thought it would make sense that at least part of the “Diocese Tax” would go to cover the Priest’s room an board. If it’s not, I find that strange.
 
I understand his salary comes from the bishop, who is the holder of all church property. Collections other than for special building funds and such also go to the bishop.
 
TC3033 said:
It was my understanding that the priest was a Diocesan employee
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No. Priests are not diocesan employees. They aren’t employees at all per the IRS. They are self employed for employment and social security taxes.

The parish is responsible for pay, rectory, meal allowance, and mileage reimbursement (or the pastor has to take it as an expense on his taxes if they don’t reimburse), health insurance and retirement.

The diocese sets the scale for pay, reimbursement, and stipends.
TC3033 said:
I thought it would make sense that at least part of the “Diocese Tax” would go to cover the Priest’s room an board. If it’s not, I find that strange.
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No. The Cathedraticum does not cover any parish expenses.
 
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In our Diocese, priests are paid by the Parish. We own a rectory, but, with a married priest they need their own private residence, it does increase the costs to the parish.

We have found that many people think the Diocese does support the parish, in the US (except in very poor mission areas) it is the other way around. They parish pays a portion of their collections to support the Diocese.
 
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