The Catholic New World: Individual donations grow, but Pastoral Center and parishes showing deficits

By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

Fewer people in the pews translated into less money for parishes while increasing pension and insurance obligations created a deficit in the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Pastoral Center budget, according to the annual report for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

The annual October count of people attending Mass showed that attendance was down 5.9 percent last year. That led to a 2.9 percent decrease in parish revenue, said Thomas Brennan, the archdiocesan director of finance, and overall operating deficit for parishes of $36 million.

In fiscal 2002, the parishes had a combined surplus of $24.2 million, Brennan said.

“The contributions, such as those received on Sundays, Holy Days, Christmas and Easter, represent the largest source of parish revenue, and they grew on a per-person basis of 4.8 percent in fiscal year 2003,” Brennan said, but it was not enough to offset the declining number of contributors.

Cardinal George said he was disturbed that more pews are going empty, as only 25 to 30 percent of the 2.4 million registered Catholics go to Mass on a regular basis.

“It is my hope that all Catholics can strengthen and in some cases renew their relationship with Christ Jesus through stronger participation in their local parishes,” the cardinal said. “I urge those Catholics who haven’t already done so to get to know your priests and those who help them and to get involved with your fellow parishioners and experience again the all-encompassing glory of the Lord that full participation in the community of his body, the Catholic Church, offers.”

At the same time attendance dropped, the archdiocese’s 374 parishes, 248 elementary schools and seven high schools supported by parishes or the archdiocese saw net assets increase by 2.4 percent to $935 million, primarily because of the success of the archdiocesan Millennium Campaign, which raised money for parish, school and archdiocesan capital projects.

Many of the operating fund difficulties come from a large number of parishes trying to maintain large, aging buildings with smaller, aging congregations, Brennan said. Last year, only 86, or a little more than 20 percent of parishes broke even or had an operating surplus. In fiscal 2002, 40 percent of parishes broke even or ran surpluses.

At the Pastoral Center, which provides services across the archdiocese, there was a one-year deficit of $88.5 million, compared to a deficit of $15.8 million a year ago.

Belt-tightening measures intended to allow the pastoral center to break even for the most part worked, Brennan said, with net spending dropping from $26.4 million in fiscal 2002 to $26.1 million in fiscal 2003. Grant funding to schools and parishes also dropped by about $10 million, or 38 percent, from fiscal 2002, Brennan said.

However, the archdiocese moved more than $49 million in assets into its pension fund reserve because of changing assumptions about the funds’ rate of return and the amount that will be needed to pay pension obligations in the future. The pension plan covers 17,000 current and former pastoral center, parish and agency employees.

At the same time, insurance costs increased nearly 130 percent, from $19.7 million to $45.2 million. The money will fund a combination of self-insurance and outside commercial policies, and the costs are based both on actual claims and potential claims for the future, Brennan said.

The archdiocese also spent $2.7 million to settle sexual abuse claims in fiscal 2003; that number will rise next year, as the archdiocese has already paid $14.9 million in fiscal 2004.

The archdiocese has borrowed money to pay those claims, and will pay off the loans with the proceeds from the sale of undeveloped property, said Archdiocesan Chancellor Jimmy M. Lago. “No contributions made to parishes, schools or the pastoral center will be used to fund the sexual misconduct settlements,” Lago said.