Whose Money Is It? Financial Accountability in the Church

March 25, 2006

Whose Money Is It? Financial Accountability in the Church was the topic of March's meeting. Joining us were George M. Perkins, Visiting Professor of Economics, Bates College, Lewistin Maine; John-Campbell Barmmer, Founder and President, One Catholic Voice for Action, Miami, Florida; and Dan Bartley, CPA, Founder and Co-Chair, Voice of the Faithul of Long Island. Perkins discussed magisterial teachings on clergy-lay collaboration as well as tenets of Canon Law in relations to parishes establishing finance councils, planning for budgeting activities consistent with parish mission, and rendering an annual accounting to the bishop, the finance council and the faithful. He also shared with us The Principles for Parish Finance Councils, a draft of VOTF's Structural Change Working Group. Barmmer related his experiences in the Archdiocese of Miami founding One Catholic Voice for Action, and their activities to "gain full disclosure, accountability, and transparency in all financial and pastoral programs within the Archdiocese of Miami." Bartley described the history behind their VOTF affiliate's current petition drive to create a finance council in the Diocese of Rockville Centre to work alongside the existing appointed council to "make sure that spending priorities reflect the values and priorities of the faith community." On the local front, Peter Mahoney related his experiences sitting on a parish finance council through three pastors at St. Joseph Parish in Mendham, NJ. The theme of this story was that collaboration is dependent on the leadership style of the pastor. Parishioners need to be prepared that with a change in pastor, their contributions valued today, could be spurned tomorrow.

The following is a journalistic account of the meeting.

WHIPPANY, NJ (3/26/06)&.Whose Money Is It?, the title of  Marchs Voice of the Faithful meeting on financial accountability in the Roman Catholic Church, brought a spirited response from a crowd of approximately 100 who came to hear what three nationally acclaimed speakers on Church finance had to say about current Church financial affairs and the experience they are having in their particular dioceses.  The meeting was held in the Birchwood Manor in Whippany.

John-Campbell Barmmer of the Miami, Florida Archdiocese, president of a small, recently formed Catholic action group named Catholic Voice for Action, electrified the audience when he told them of a situation there, very similar to what VOTF currently is experiencing in the Newark Archdiocese and the Paterson Diocese&.not being able to discuss with the bishops matters of grave concern, not only about priest pedophilia, but church finances, collaboration with the laity and supporting effective parish councils to name a few.

"We found that priest sexual abuse, like in nearly all other dioceses, simply wasn't getting their attention in the Miami Archdiocese, but when we focused on diocesan finances during the Archbishop's Appeal Fund and got considerable publicity in the Miami Herald, that got their attention," he said.

"Make no mistake about it, you can talk about accountability and reform in every area from pedophilia, to celibacy to allowing married priests to celebrate the Eucharist and they'll ignore you, but when you question their finances in a way that negatively affects their income, you"ll get their attention."

"In Miami," he said, "we had the good fortune of enlisting the interest of a young Miami Herald reporter. Her reporting got us a meeting, not with the archbishop, but with the diocesan chancellor."

"The meeting was very interesting," he said. "At first they tried to intimidate us with their magisterial presence, lawyers, spokespeople etc. explaining that we didn't realize what we were doing."

"As our discussion developed, we talked about a need for a diocesan constitution. The chancellor held up a catechism saying, "This is our constitution!" and he threw it across the table at me. He actually threw it at me," Barmmer said.

"He then started explaining how the Miami Archdiocese is wide open and transparent. Finally, he asked us to see our by laws. I told him we had none."

Barmaar told the crowd, "Sex abuse by priests has been with us for centuries and it will continue for years to come, but the battles for financial accountability have just begun. We're seeing it in dioceses across the country and in other countries as well. It's organizations like ours that are waging the battles." He added, "Already four dioceses declared bankruptcy and others will be doing the same."

"When you meet with them they follow the same line," he said. "They'll throw woman priests at you, married priests, and they'll tell you how they have top business financial advisers guiding them about financing. They'll talk about everything but the real issues of accountability and transparency. What they won't tell you is that the bishop makes all the financial decisions. You'll never hear about their real estate holdings and investments and why they have their funds kept in such convoluted accounts that they're not understandable. They do this by design," he said.

The end of his presentation had good and bad news. The US attorney's investigation into Church finances was put on a back burner. "But he's determined and we'll be hearing from him again," he said. "He's supposedly impaneling a grand jury to investigate a $12 million shortfall in diocesan funds. And the reporter, who I believe saw a possible Pulitzer Prize for her efforts, had her stories so edited and important parts taken out that she became totally disillusioned and quit her job."

The good news is a deacon is leading an effort for an investigation into the lack of retirement provisions for clergy, which also may be a subject for a grand jury in South Florida. And, the Archdiocesan Bishop's Fund is down from $11 million last year to $8 million this year, an indication that Catholics in the pews have taken notice.

Dan Bartley, founder and co-chair of Long Island VOTF (LIVOTF), spoke in a lighter vein. It seems when anyone speaks about the Long Island Diocese of Rockville Centre, Bishop William Murphy comes to mind.

Jimmy Breslin, the Newsday reporter immortalized "Mansion Murphy" for evicting six elderly nuns from their convent so he could take it over as his residence and spent $1.5 million lavishly rehabilitating the building into a mansion.

Bartley again confirmed that Murphy admitted that his extravagant decorating of the mansion was done because he believed he was preparing it "to entertain influential prelates from around the world."

He told of a meeting held by the bishop where it was pointed out that the diocese was in desperate need of more funds. Shortly thereafter a group of financial non church appointed experts, after an in-depth audit, found the diocese had some $300 million in cash on hand, of which $145 million was excess cash.  They pleaded for the diocese to do something constructive with the funds.  Several months went by and they got no response.

One of the investigative group, Dick Grafer, called a press conference and got major news coverage to talk about the diocese excessive funds.  Months went by with still no response.

By the following year the excessive funds had increased by another $40 million and again the group pleaded for the diocese to put the money to good use. "It's a 'gospel values issue'," Bartley said.

The diocese still hasn't responded but has reacted as dioceses so often do. Instead it has been carrying a campaign of vilification attacking the credibility of Grafer.

LIVOTF has initiated a petition drive in the Rockville Centre Diocese.  The goal is to obtain 20,000 signatures, hold another press conference, and confront Murphy with its financial audit.

"Dishonesty in the Church is rampant," he said. "Not just in Long Island, but more and more evidence is showing that it is nearly everywhere."

The third speaker, George Perkins, Visiting Associate Professor of Economics, Bates College, and chair of VOTF's Structural Change Working Group on finance councils, has done an in-depth study of needed structural change in the area of finance to make parish finance councils genuine and effective. Their findings, he said, are being made before Catholic groups to stimulate discussion.

He cited several canons within the Code of Canon Law, particularly the 1983 Code, which leaves composition, responsibilities and operating rules of parish finance councils to a "collaboration among the faithful," that is, between clergy and laity, he said.

"Accountability in financing is in keeping with magisterial teachings in clergy-lay collaboration as expressed in Church Canon Law," he said. "The Church's hierarchical constitution provides and expects that clergy and laity will collaborate in administering a parish's temporal goods," he explained. He also cited several statements made by Pope John Paul II supporting his thesis.