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COMMENTARY
Collaborating on Financial Transparency
Report from the Structural Change Working Group
George Perkins and Margaret Roylance
Several groups are laboring to improve financial accountability and transparency
within the Church. Some quietly have been pushing these objectives for a long
time; others are new to this effort. Voice of the Faithful (VOTF) and National
Leadership Roundtable on Church Management (NLRCM), because they rose out of
the recent governance failures in the Church in America, are in the latter
category. Among the forerunners are the USCCB Committee on Budget and Finance,
its Accounting Practices Committee, and the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference.
Their efforts over many years are reflected in Diocesan Financial Issues as
well as the many derivative manuals that guide the daily operations of many
dioceses and parishes. Also, the Canon Law Society of America, especially through
its Church Finance Handbook, has clarified the nature and limits of consultative
bodies and provided norms for dioceses to model. And finally, Foundations and
Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA) has stressed the importance
of transparency and lay collaboration in church financial management.
Despite the collective efforts of these varied organizations, financial accountability
and transparency is still lacking in some dioceses and many parishes. Sometimes
the difficulties of clergy-lay collaboration in administering the Church’s
temporal goods can frustrate the genuineness and effectiveness of pastoral
and finance councils. Frequently, these difficulties are caused by convergence
of a complaisant and deferential laity and an obstinate clergy in situations
where laity are more likely than clergy to posses the requisite expertise to
administer these goods. However, the magisterial teachings on clergy-lay collaboration
expressed in Lumen Gentium, Christifideles Laici, and Novo Millennio Inuente encourage collaboration through these consultative bodies.
VOTF, for its part, has taken steps through the Finance Subcommittee of the
Structural Change Working Group to work with not only NLRCM but also some of
the longer-standing organizations committed to improving diocesan and parish
financial accountability and transparency. The Subcommittee shared VOTF’s
Principles for Diocesan Finance Councils with Francis J. Butler, President
of FADICA. In addition, Frank Doyle, a friend of the Subcommittee with relationships
at the USCCB, orchestrated through his professional network a distribution
and possible future discussion of these Principles by the USCCB Accounting
Practices Committee and its Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference.
Jim Post participated in NLRCM’s initial gathering at Wharton. Afterward,
Don Evans, a Subcommittee member, met informally with Fr. Donald Monan, Chancellor
of Boston College and a founder of NLRCM, to explore our shared goals of financial
transparency and accountability and possible collaboration. Although there
should be no expectations for any outcome from this dialogue, Don will continue
to pursue it and other contacts. His immediate goal is to disseminate VOTF’s
Principles for Diocesan Finance Councils, and a parallel set of recommendations
on Principles for Parish Finance Councils.
In addition to seeking contact with other like-minded organizations, the finance
subcommittee is working with Frank Douglas of the VOTF National Representative
Council to establish a team that would provide expert opinion on matters pertaining
to administering the Church’s temporal goods. Any VOTF member with expertise
in finance, accounting, pensions, auditing, or a related discipline and an
interest in serving on such a team should contact Margaret Roylance at roylances@comcast.net.
Within our Church, an appreciation for and acceptance of accountability and
transparency in Church finances will not happen quickly. Cultures change slowly
and only with persistent prodding. We, as VOTF members, must be patient in
our struggle to build up consultative bodies—our third goal—collaborating
with those who share our vision. Financial accountability and transparency
will be achieved only when a critical mass of the Faithful are drawn to embrace
these goals.
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