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Recently published survey results by
Our Sunday Visitor Press in
Best Practices of Catholic Pastoral and Finance Councils
Topic
Prof. Chuck Zech, founder of the Center for Study of Church Management at the Villanova School of Business
and his co-authors have released the results of a national Survey of 661 Catholic parishes on both their
Parish Pastoral Councils and Parish Finance Councils. This was a joint project between Villanova's Center for the
Study of Church Management and Georgetown’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, and is the first study
ever to gather data and analyze these two important parish consultative bodies.
The general findings
- 93% of the parishes in the sample had a parish pastoral council, and 93% had a parish finance council. The Code of Canon Law mandates that each parish have a parish finance council. Canon law does not mandate parish pastoral councils, but leaves it up to each diocesan ordinary to decide if they should be established
- 75% of parish pastoral councils reach decisions through consensus, rather than by majority vote
- The parish pastoral councils with the most effective group processes were those that
o Had a resident pastor
o Were chaired by someone other than the pastor
o Had established by-laws
o Participated in a parish pastoral council education/formation program
o Were involved in a variety of activities, including planning, setting a vision for the parish, and setting parish priorities
o Included faith-sharing on their agenda
o Reached decisions by a process of discernment or consensus, rather than by majority vote
The parish finance councils with the most effective group processes were those that
o Were chaired by someone other than the pastor
o Were involved in the parish budgetary process
o Examined parish financial statements frequently
Perhaps the most noteworthy chapter in the book is a follow-up of a 2007 study that had been co-authored by Zech and Dr. Robert West of the Villanova School of Business. That study had surveyed Catholic Diocesan CFO’s and found that 85% of the reporting dioceses had experienced embezzlements within the past five years. It also found that one of the greatest fears of diocesan CFO’s was the inconsistent use of internal financial controls at the parish level. The lack of internal financial controls has been cited as the major cause of embezzlements at the parish level.
As a result of the findings of widespread embezzlements, the USCCB, at its November 2007 meeting, approved
a report by its Ad Hoc Committee on Diocesan Audits that clearly placed internal financial controls within the
area of responsibility of parish finance councils.
However, the data reported in this follow-up study revealed that the message of the importance of tightened internal financial controls hasn’t reached many of the parishes. Specifically, among the findings that are of concern were:
- In 2/3 of the parishes, only one person was authorized to sign checks no matter how large the amount
- This was compounded by the fact that:
- In 5 percent of the parishes, the same person had sole responsibility for both writing checks and reconciling bank statements.
- In about one-sixth of the parishes, the same person was solely responsible for depositing the Sunday collection and for reconciling bank statements.
- In nearly a third of the parishes only one person deposited non-collection revenues and reconciled the bank statements.
- 40 percent of the parishes gave one person the sole authority to both approve routine disbursements and reconcile bank statements.
- 5 percent gave the responsibility to a single individual for both approving non-budgeted expenditures and reconciling bank statements
Sunday Collections
- In about 5 percent of the parishes, only one individual counts the Sunday collection.
- About 40 percent of the parishes employ a regular crew of counters with an average of about 5 members, but nearly half of these fail to include any staff members among the counters -- both of these approaches are fraught with danger.
- More than half the parishes utilize a system of rotating collection counting teams with an average of about four members per crew.
The final Chapter of the book contains the following recommendations:
Parish pastoral councils
- Leadership should be shared
- Establish group norms, such as council by-laws
- Provide parish-based education/formation programs for council members
- Include a member of the parish finance council on the parish pastoral council
- Communicate with the parish at-large
- Match decision-making procedures with the situation
- Include prayer and faith-sharing as part of the agenda of every meeting
Parish Finance Councils
- Leadership should be shared
- Employ a guidelines manual
- Involve parishioners in the budgetary process
- Take responsibility for ensuring that proper internal financial controls are in place in the parish
- Review financial reports frequently
- Communicate with the parish at-large
- Work with the parish pastoral council to set long-range parish financial and physical plant goals
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