Openness, Transparency an Accountability
Things you should know about if there is openness, transparency and accountability in your parish. For example: you should know who the members of your parish Board of directors and members of your parish councils are. How they were selected. If, as lay members, do they have an official vote. You should have received periodic reports from them so that you are aware of what's going on in your parish. you should be informed as to how much money is collected weekly in your parish. You should know if your parish has put into place the security measures received from your diocese regarding the protection of your Sunday collections. ( it should be noted that the security procedures provided your parish by the diocese is not mandatory) You should know if your parish has to set aside money for a diocesan fund regarding the financial settlements of abusive crimes and just how much.
If there is openness , transparency and accountability in your parish, you may have the answers to some or all of these concerns. If so, don't ever leave your parish. But, the fact is that many parishes do not believe that this information should be made available to their parishioners because,you, as a parishioner should have faith and trust in your pastor. To question your pastor regarding these concerns is so very often misconstrued as to imply you have an ulterior motive. The only problem is, there are hundreds of cases throughout the country where thousands of dollars has been stolen, even millions, by priests and people employed by parishes and your pastor is well aware that this has been happening.Millions of dollars are stolen from Sunday collections every week. Just because you don't hear about any of this from you church doesn't mean that it is not happening or that you don't read the newspapers. Do you believe that the parishioners have the right to know the answers to these questions? I would think so. If your interested enough, how do you go about finding the answers if you personally feel uncomfortable approaching your pastor. Make a copy of this article and try to get several other parishioners to sign it with you and send it to your" Parish Council Members", certified, RRR, in care of your parish address.
Dom Tomasso, Whenever I
Dom Tomasso,
Whenever I make a donation, I feel that I am giving the money away and that I do not need to know in detail where and how the money is being spent. How would I determine which expenditures are legitimate and which are not? Even a haircut could be justified.
The only thing I can imagine as being inappropriate is an expenditure that supports some vice or other--gambling or pornography, for example. However, by no stretch of the imagination can I imagine such an expenditure ever being recorded. Therefore, it seems to me I would only recognize that money is being misspent in this way if the amount being squandered was enormous, something unlikely to be the case without there being other indications of trouble.
Otherwise, I think it just adds to the number of things I have to worry about in life if I have to look over the Church's financial statements in detail. That said, though, I do have room in my life to look over a list of recipients of Catholic Church largess to make sure no money is going directly or indirectly to organizations that are inappropriate, such as political parties.