Priests Lecture on Giving During Mass

[Womanoffaith10]

A couple of weeks ago during the Homily my priest lectured the congregation on our lack of giving to the Bishops Annual Appeal. He yelled at us as if we were a room full of school children. I understand the importance of giving to the church. I know it is the will of God and also vital for the church to survive. But I feel like every time I turn around we’re asked for money for something else! I’m starting the think that the church is on a mission for money instead of God. Is it just my church and/or my particular diocese or do others feel the same way?

 

[sw85]

A couple of weeks ago during the Homily my priest lectured the congregation on our lack of giving to the Bishops Annual Appeal. He yelled at us as if we were a room full of school children. I understand the importance of giving to the church. I know it is the will of God and also vital for the church to survive. But I feel like every time I turn around we’re asked for money for something else! I’m starting the think that the church is on a mission for money instead of God. Is it just my church and/or my particular diocese or do others feel the same way?

The Church doesn’t have moneymaking enterprises. It relies pretty much entirely on donations from the faithful. The poorer the parish/diocese, the greater the reliance, since the Church cannot rely on a few very wealthy and very generous givers but must rely on a larger number of smaller donations.

Priests are called “father” for a reason. Part of their duties are to remind their parishioners of their obligations to one another, to the community, and to holy mother Church. That includes chastising the parish when they fall short of meeting those obligations.

 

[LJH_80]

To what degree does this serve as a natural selection process for priests?
I don’t know this specific priest, but I hope you’ll grant me that some priests are better at relating to congregations than others.

If a specific priest is not bringing in sufficient donations to maintain the parish, does the Church hierarchy send in more money from other parishes? Do they simply close the parish? Do they try sending in a new priest?

I’m sorry if I’m hijacking a thread, but this has made me curious about the logistics.

 

[Richard320]

When I returned to the church several years ago, the parish had three priests. I didn’t know which was which; I knew the three names, but no idea who was who. So my reference was The Old Priest, The Young Priest, and The Money Priest. As time went on, I learned the names and also that The Money Priest was the Pastor. To the day he retired, every - no exaggeration - homily I ever heard him preach somehow included a pitch for money.

The parish was not overflowing with money, but it was pretty affluent, and while we never, ever, seemed to meet the budget expectations, everything got fixed that broke, parking lots got repaved, the loan on the new parish activity center and rectory got paid off, etc etc etc.

There really was no reason to make every Mass sound like a PBS pledge drive.

 

[Womanoffaith10]

LJH-please don’t apologize. You bring up a good point. Which leads me to further think where the heck does all the money go? Our bulletins show how much we make and it’s a decent amount every week. It’s not millions lol, but it’s a pretty good sum.

sw85- Yes I understand and appreciate that, but many of us in the parish(my family included) send our kids to the school affiliated with my parish. That’s not cheap! Plus keep in mind the added costs of uniforms, lunches, school supplies, after school care costs, etc. There’s no reason to yell at us as if we’re incompetent.

Richard320- Our bills are also payed. In fact we just recently got a new statue…hmm perhaps that’s the problem? My priest is quite statue happy. We have tons(my parish sits out around farm land so we have some space).

 

[PerfectTiming]

LJH-please don’t apologize. You bring up a good point. Which leads me to further think where the heck does all the money go? Our bulletins show how much we make and it’s a decent amount every week. It’s not millions lol, but it’s a pretty good sum.

Where does the money go? Buying hosts and wine for Communion, candles for the church, heating the church in the winter, insurance bills, electricity bills, telephone bills, water bills, liturgical vestments, flowers for the church, sacred vessels, altar linens: and those are just the practical things. All those little costs you have in your everyday life, a church has them only multiplied.

 

[Joannm]

Some priests can handle finances better than others. All parishes are required to have a finance council and trustees that help oversee spending and to a big extent they need to answer to the Bishop with regard to spending. However I have seen pastors run a parish to the ground with useless spending, such as spending on externals…statues, landscaping, decorating the rectory, etc, while ignoring the broken boiler and leaking roof.

There are a lot of expenses in a parish, heat, electricity, salaries and health insurance, supplies, maintenance, “tax” to the diocese, Catholic school subsidy (even if the parish doesn’t have a school), liturgical needs, gas for the cars.

It is amazing how little some people give. Some give the same they gave 10 years ago. The cost of living has gone up for all, including parishes. I am not saying that people who don’t have the money should give a lot, I am saying that people who do have the money should think about putting more than $5 in the collection a week. That’s one trip to Starbucks. Surely the parish is worth more.

I agree the priest should not yell or talk about money all the time. But I think most parishes have the “money talk” at least twice a year, once when they do the parish financial report and once for the Bishop’s Appeal, and maybe another time during the year if there is a special need, like the boiler breaks.

As far as new statues, many times parishioners donate these and are quiet about it, so don’t be so quick to think the pastor is wasting money…unless of course the roof is falling in but the parish keeps getting new statues and is overhauling the rectory decor.

 

[Womanoffaith10]

Yes the everyday expenses do add up. My husband and I just bought our first home several months ago we figured that out quick haha. And yes there are quite a handful that could afford to give more…alot more actually. But I think my biggest problem is the way my priest said what he said. It’s not always what you say, but how you say it. Maybe if he explained to us the costs of everything. I work at a bank so I have a pretty good understanding of finance, but there are people out there that just don’t get it(I’m serious it actually shocks me).

 

[Pug]

Womanoffaith10,

In our diocese we have one annual (required) homily devoted to the topic of where the money goes. They pass out a chart of how the spending breaks down, for the school and the salaries, etc. Perhaps you could request a copy from your parish office from the last time your parish had one of those homilies. Maybe your diocese doesn’t do them once a year, though, but it seems worth it to ask. Ours is in, oh, I forget, maybe the fall sometime.

There are newer expectations about accountability in play these days, so I bet your parish has something like ours does.

 

[tafan]

Yes the everyday expenses do add up. My husband and I just bought our first home several months ago we figured that out quick haha. And yes there are quite a handful that could afford to give more…alot more actually. But I think my biggest problem is the way my priest said what he said. It’s not always what you say, but how you say it. Maybe if he explained to us the costs of everything. I work at a bank so I have a pretty good understanding of finance, but there are people out there that just don’t get it(I’m serious it actually shocks me).

Did he really yell? That would be highly unusual. Nevertheless, it is our obligation, just as attending mass on Sunday, to support the Church financially; this includes at a minimum our Parish, our Diocese, and Peter’s Pence (since this is the hierarchy of the each of us for our Church). So it is completely proper for our pastor, as our moral teacher to lecture us on this moral obligation. When we give to the church, the IRS might consider it a charitable contribution, but to us Catholics it is truly an obligation. ** It is sinful to not support our Church**.

As to where the expenses go? Well, most parishes in the US release a financial report at least once a year in the church bulletin (most dioceses require this). I remember one time at a parish meeting, a well known member, elderly lady stood up and asked where the money went and suggested, in a very kind way, that we put a report in the bulletin every now and then. It so happens that the parish finance report had been put in the bulletin just 2 weeks prior to that.

At a relatively poor parish, with a school, we spend 75K/year on janatorial services, we spend 300K a year on parish staff salaries (3 priests, 8 full time staff, 2 or 3 part time staff), we spend around 150K a year on repair and maintenance of building and grounds, we spend 40k a year on liturgical supplies. Liability insurance is around 60K/year. Benefits are probably another 100k/year. I am drawing a blank on utilities. Those are some numbers that just pop into my head. I give them as an example of how costs are quite significant for a parish just to operate.

 

[tafan]

From ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=612248&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2008&Author=&Keyword=&pgnu=5&groupnum=54&record_bookmark=206&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ID+DESC&start_at=

The Precepts of the Catholic Church are a description of the absolute minimum actions required of Catholics regarding the Church.

The Church uses these precepts remind us that Christian life requires a commitment to prayer and active participation in the liturgy and sacraments. If we fall below this bare-minimum level, we can’t rightly consider ourselves to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.

Each of these precepts of the Catholic Church is a requirement. Together with the Ten Commandments, they represent the minimum level of moral living. Intentional violation of the precepts or the Commandments is a grave matter, meaning a mortal sin.
.

 

[Sunbreak]

Maybe the priest is getting calls from the archdiocese for not meeting the fundraising goals. In my archdiocese, the archdiocese sets the amount that they think the parish should contribute to the annual archbishop’s appeal. If the parish doesn’t look like they are meeting goals like other parishes are, the priest will get calls from the archdiocese. In fact, where I am, the archdiocesan office actually wanted to send someone to teach the parish how to fundraise properly (and also wanted to charge the parish a fee to send that person to do this).

In terms of other money requests, there are a certain amount of other archdiocesan sanctioned special collections throughout the year such as for catholic charities, communication, etc. At the parish level, of course, the parish has to pay its bills. It becomes a problem if the parishioners don’t know where the money goes, and not all parishes are willing to give that information to parishioners. You would think that they would have to provide this, but our local archdiocesan finance person told a previous pastor that he didn’t have to do this.

 

[Womanoffaith10]

Tafan-I know that we are obligated to support our churches. I’m fairly certain I said that. My concern is that I feel like that’s all the church is about anymore. I feel like it’s about the Almighty dollar and not the Almighty Lord.

Sunbreak-Yes we do have a goal that is set for us. In fact ours was dropped from last year.

 

[thistle]

A couple of weeks ago during the Homily my priest lectured the congregation on our lack of giving to the Bishops Annual Appeal. He yelled at us as if we were a room full of school children. I understand the importance of giving to the church. I know it is the will of God and also vital for the church to survive.** But I feel like every time I turn around we’re asked for money for something else**! I’m starting the think that the church is on a mission for money instead of God. Is it just my church and/or my particular diocese or do others feel the same way?

So how many times in the past 12 months has the Church actually asked you for money?

 

[Womanoffaith10]

Do you want to just to say the times during Mass or include the tons of “fundraisers” my sister’s school sends home on a weekly basis? Look I’m not saying that we shouldn’t support our church, schools etc financially. If we did that then obviously none would survive. I just wish my priest would use his words more wisely and be more specific instead of telling us how terrible we all are.