Tag: Stewardship

2 min read

Stewardship

What Is Collection Money Used For?

Msgr. William J. King

August 14, 2022 6:58 am August 14, 2022

2 min read

9940 views

Comments Off

2 min read

There is a serious obligation for a pastor to report each year on how the offerings or tithings of parishioners and other donors have been used. The Code of Canon…

There is a serious obligation for a pastor to report each year on how the offerings or tithings of parishioners and other donors have been used. The Code of Canon Law urges pastors and other administrators of the Church’s goods to be “good householders,” and lists some resulting obligations (see Canon 1284). Among these is the responsibility to “draw up a report of the administration at the end of each year.” Transparency in financial administration and accountability to donors are important values in the administration of Church goods.

Canon 1287 requires that this annual report be given to the “local ordinary” (in most dioceses, the diocesan bishop) and also to the parishioners. This canon could not be more explicit about this: “Administrators are to render an account to the faithful concerning the goods offered by the faithful to the Church.”

Expenses can vary according to the size of a parish, its ministries — whether it has a parish school, for instance — and location.

That having been said, in almost every parish, as in most not-for-profit organizations, the largest single set of expenses is staff: wages and benefits for parish employees. Typically, the second largest set of expenses is funding for Catholic education: support for schools and programs of religious education for children and adults.

In many dioceses, a percentage of parish income is taxed by the diocese as a means of providing operating funds for the central offices and ministries of the bishop. Let’s not forget that it also costs money to turn on the lights; to operate heating and air conditioning; to keep water flowing; to maintain the buildings, grounds, and parking lots; to insure the parish property, pay any state or local taxes that are assessed; and even to provide hosts and wine for Mass.

Many parishes also use a portion of the weekly tithing or offering for charitable assistance outside of the parish. This is sometimes called “tithing the tithe” and takes the form of direct assistance to a mission project, or to another parish in need, or to a Catholic social service agency, whether nearby or far away.

It is also good stewardship for a parish to maintain savings in case of unplanned events — a leaky roof or equipment failure, for instance. Many parishes, if possible, try to put a bit of money away each year in savings for this purpose.

Rev. Msgr. William J. King is a priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg.

Comments Off

1 min read

Stewardship

Tithing and Charitable Giving

Father Reginald Martin

March 3, 2022 8:41 am March 3, 2022

1 min read

13363 views

Comments Off

1 min read

The Church’s Code of Canon Law teaches: “The Christian faithful are obliged to assist with the needs of the Church so that the Church has what is necessary for divine…

The Church’s Code of Canon Law teaches: “The Christian faithful are obliged to assist with the needs of the Church so that the Church has what is necessary for divine worship, for apostolic works and works of charity and for the decent sustenance of ministers. They are also obliged to promote social justice and … to assist the poor from their own resources” (Canon 222).

Although a contribution of 10 percent stands as the traditional ideal, the law does not specify an amount to be given to the local parish church. Indeed, a comment on the law observes: “The obligation is according to each person’s possibilities since no one is held to the impossible, and family obligations are to be taken into account.… Family resources must be safeguarded.”

Because we must support the poor and contribute to causes that strive for social justice, concerned Catholics might want to divide their charitable resources among a number of causes. Parish needs will always have a prior claim on the generosity of God’s People, but special diocesan collections (or other — even civic — efforts) that aid the poor and seek to make God’s kingdom a visible reality in our time might be considered as well.

Comments Off

4 min read

Stewardship

Is Anything You Own Really Yours?

Simply Catholic Staff

August 13, 2019 8:06 am August 13, 2019

4 min read

3334 views

Comments Off

4 min read

Asterius of Amasea (d. c. 400) was the bishop of a city in the region of Pontus, Asia Minor. He was celebrated as a popular, powerful preacher and a faithful,…

Asterius of Amasea (d. c. 400) was the bishop of a city in the region of Pontus, Asia Minor. He was celebrated as a popular, powerful preacher and a faithful, holy pastor to his flock. This excerpt is from his sermon “The Unjust Steward.”

A false conception prevails among us that multiplies our transgressions and diminishes the good we ought to do: We think that all the things we enjoy in this life, we possess as lords and masters. On account of this notion we fiercely fight and compete for our precious “possessions.”

Now the truth of the matter is quite otherwise. For none of those things we have received is our own. Nor do we dwell in this life as absolute possessors and lords as if in a house of our own; but as “aliens and exiles” and wanderers (see 1 Pt 2:11). When we don’t expect it, we’re led where we don’t want to go. And when it seems good to the Lord, we’re deprived of the possession of our wealth.

For this reason, the enjoyment of this perishable life is quite liable to change. Whoever is glorious today is an object of pity tomorrow, eliciting compassion and help. Whoever is prosperous and flourishing in wealth now suddenly finds himself poor, without even bread to support life.

Say you possess an estate, having either inherited it from your parents or purchased it. Recall, if you can, all those who have occupied it before you. Think also about the time to come, and how many will occupy it after you.

Now tell me who owns the house: those who have had it, or those who now have it, or those who in the future are to have it? All of them could claim ownership.

Or think of an inn where you might stay while traveling. There, since you have brought no household goods with you, you are pro-vided with a bed, table and other furnishings. But imagine that, before you can use them as long as you want, another traveler comes in, panting, covered with dust and hard after you, forcing you from the inn and insisting that these provisions are his own — though, in reality, they belong to neither of you.

Such, brothers and sisters, is our life. If anything, in fact, it’s still more transitory than that. So I wonder why people say “my estate” and “my house,” and thus appropriate by an idle syllable things that aren’t theirs, clutching things that belong to others as well.

On stage, no one actor has exclusive right to any given character; any actor may assume it. So is it in the case of the earth and its material things. One after another, people put on earthly things and take them off like garments.

That’s why the apostle Paul says: “The form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor 7:31); “as having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Cor 6:10). For these sayings have this one intent: to remind us that it’s fitting for us to live as creatures of a day, awaiting the signal for our departure.

You Are a Slave

Nothing is your own. You are a slave, and what is yours belongs to your Lord. For a slave has no property that is really his own; naked you were brought into this life.

If you’ve received things that aren’t your own, what responsibilities are incumbent upon you? Give to the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the afflicted, don’t neglect the needy or the outcast at the corners of the streets. Don’t be anxious about yourself, or stop to consider how you’ll live tomorrow (see Mt 6:34). If you obey the Scripture in this way, you’ll be honored by the Lawgiver.

That rich man in Christ’s parable whose land brought forth abundantly was a wicked steward of the earthly life, since in the abundance of his crops he intended nothing useful. Instead, enlarging his gluttony and greed, he planned it all for his own enjoyment, telling himself: “Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Lk 12:18-19). While he was yet speaking, the death angel stood at his side, to conduct him from the earth.

Only a fool can fail to see: Daily, now one, now another, we too are being removed from our stewardship here. Like St. Paul, then, we must say: “To me life is Christ, and death is gain” (Phil 1:21).

Comments Off