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They Get It!
Donna Doucette, VOTF Paulist Center, Boston, Mass. and NRC Rep, Region 1
Please allow me a moment to boast about my worship community and its continuing
efforts to demonstrate what a truly collegial Catholic community looks like.
The Paulist Center in Boston this past weekend released --as it has for
years -- its annual fiscal year financial statement. But there was a difference
this year. In a community where we have an elected Pastoral Council, a lay
Finance Council open to all community members with
financial backgrounds, and a budget the Pastoral Council both reviews and
approves -- the community managed to take even another step for complete
transparency and accountability by producing an audited Financial Report.
Needless to say, the CPA audit came back "clean." This past Sunday,
a representative from the Finance Council presented the results at each Mass,
and members of the Finance and Pastoral Councils were available after each
Mass to answer any questions about the statement or the
financial condition or the programs.
The Finance rep even apologized that the statements might be harder for
the "average parishioner" to understand this year -- the CPA recommended
that the Center produce its reports in "GAAP format," which apparently
means "generally accepted accounting principles" that are not necessarily
comprehensible to a non-accountant. Despite that, the
report, which also was inserted into each bulletin, seemed quite clear and
understandable to me. The insert came with a note that anyone with questions
could call our Business Administrator (a lay person) with questions and provided
her phone number.
In my opinion, the staff and members of the Paulist Center Councils, and
the Paulist fathers themselves, consistently demonstrate that they "get
it" when it comes to collegiality and a Christian community that respects
and embraces all its members. Donna Doucette, Region 1
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