Philadelphia Archdiocese seeing start of financial rebound

  • Thread starter Thread starter Coatimundi
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Coatimundi

Guest
When Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., became archbishop of Philadelphia in 2011, he accepted responsibility for sorting out a financial mess. The archdiocese was hemorrhaging money, and the situation was growing worse.

Two years later, great strides have been made. The fiscal year of 2013 was even $3.9 million in the black, a remarkable contrast to the $39.2 million deficit reported for fiscal year 2012. Unfortunately, a return to red ink is expected for next year. The reason for this is that the archdiocese was able to take a large amount of one-time credits this past year. Many of these credits were a result of the financial restructuring it has undertaken. For example, the $10 million from the sale of various archdiocesan properties.

However. the recurring debt of $18 million/year has been trimmed to $5 million/year. According to rchdiocesan Chief Financial Officer Timothy O’Shaughnessy, ““We’re still not operating at a break-even level but I expect that fiscal ’14 should show some improvement over fiscal ’13.” “At $18 million it’s out of control. Under $5 million – I’ll feel better when it is zero – it’s closer to manageable.”

These changes have come at a cost. 25% of employees were laid off and program services were cut. And there are some long term problems which still loom large, particularly adequate funding for pensions.

But the turn-around is working, and the future is brighter.
Source: Catholic Philly
 
We’re in the Philly Arch. It’s been a painful couple of years…
 
We are in a neighboring diocese and I see what’s going on in the Philly Diocese. Its tough to see what’s happened over the past several years. It’s good to see some light for them and a move toward improvement over the next few years.
 
They may be doing better, but it was done at the expense of closing many neighborhood churches in small poverty-stricken areas. Folks in these parts of town having nothing, and now, not even a church. Many schools were also merged, or closed altogether. It’s still a sad state of affairs.
 
I live in Phoenixville. Our two ethnic parishes were merged into the two “assimilated” parishes. Heartbreaking, as we won’t see the particular style of worship of the Polish and Slovak churches again. Both churches remain open, under the auspices of the “new” St. Ann’s and St. Mary’s. I would have killed us to see the churches decommissioned and sold, as so many others have been. Archbishop Chaput, I’m sure, would prefer opening parishes due to growth, but this is the sad state of affairs for modern Catholicism.
 
The last couple years have been very painful. Schools and churches have been closed by the dozens, and such things hit us in a very personal way. Our faith is lived out, or our personal lives tied to such places. To lose them is to lose a piece of ourselves. Even when parishes are consolidated and both churches remain open, I can’t help but think that the consolidation is a first step towards losing one of the churches.

And, as others have mentioned, the dark times are not over.
 
Frankly, I just can’t bear to think about losing the churches altogether. The pastors have been remarkably respectful and accommodating to the displaced parishioners. In my childhood community, a once vibrant Catholic town with six RC churches, was slashed and burned into one church and one chapel. It tore the heart out of the Catholic community.
 
It’s sad! My in-laws are in the Philadelphia Diocese and visiting with them and attending Mass a couple of months ago the Priest announced the financial situation to the parish that it could happen that their church could close …175 year old parish established by the Irish could be gone. That was heartbreaking to hear it. That was where my wife and I were married 14 years ago.
 
Modern_Revert said:
In my childhood community, a once vibrant Catholic town with six RC churches, was slashed and burned into one church and one chapel. It tore the heart out of the Catholic community.
Click to expand...
Respectfully, I think you’ve got that backwards. The REASON six parishes got consolidated into one was that the heart had already been torn out of the catholic community.

Now’s the time to buckle down and focus on rebuilding the basics: repentance, Faith, Grace and discipleship. Re-establish those on a community - wide basis and the community will grow again.
 
I’m in the Philadelphia Archdiocese too, and while the current state of affairs is rough (There is scheduled to be more parish closings coming very soon), I think Archbishop Chaput is doing a good job considering the mess he inherited. There was a lot of mismanagement unfortunately in this Archdiocese before Chaput came, and I’m glad they’re taking measures to fix them, even if it does come at a cost of a lot of closings. But, if the attendance was there, then the parishes wouldn’t have to close…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top