UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Peter Feuerherd | Feb. 2, 2016
Some, but not all, dioceses and parishes are taking a new look at securing offertory collections, and that’s a good thing, say critics of how the church has handled money.
“The bishops are finally recognizing that embezzlement doesn’t help their moral standing,” Charles Zech, the director of the Center for Church Management and Business Ethics at Villanova University, told NCR.
Zech noted that diocesan-wide procedures are in many ways answering long-time critics, such as Michael W. Ryan, who have long argued that collection procedures in parishes needed tightening. “He’s been crying out in the desert,” said Zech.
Such cries are being heard in dioceses and archdioceses as diverse and geographically spread as Boston, Miami and San Bernardino, Calif. Videos on archdiocesan websites for Boston and Miami offer how-tos on best practices for parish collections to assure that cash dropped into the collection baskets each Sunday actually gets to the parish bank account. An estimated 40 percent of Sunday collections comes from cash donations, seen as particularly vulnerable to pilfering.
The Diocese of San Bernardino is presenting a conference in February that will address parish collection security.
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