UNITED STATES
Voice of the Faithful
NEWTON, Mass., Oct. 1, 2012 – Recent exposing of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s financial woes (see “Archdiocese of Phila. in serious financial shape – and so are its parishes,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 30, 2012) underscores the Roman Catholic Church reform movement Voice of the Faithful’s long-time calls for more transparency and accountability in parish and diocesan finances.
VOTF distributed a paper called Financial Transparency and Accountability during its recently concluded 10th Year Conference in Boston. “Since its founding in 2002,” the paper begins, “Voice of the Faithful® has worked consistently to support increased transparency and accountability with regard to church finances at the parish and the diocesan levels. We (VOTF members) realized then that the scandal of clerical sexual abuse was enabled by lack of diocesan financial transparency. Since 2002, significant progress has been made in many dioceses, although the progress has varied greatly across the United States.”
VOTF is on record as applauding the progress in financial transparency in the Archdiocese of Boston under Cardinal Sean O’Malley; while local financial experts in Philadelphia, according to Philadelphia Inquirer, point to the opposite there. “’It probably seems to them (Philadelphia archdiocese) that they are being more transparent,’ said Nancy Gunza, a partner in the Plymouth Meeting office of the accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen, who looked at the (archdiocese’s) June financial report. ‘But without a fully consolidated set of financial statements, the picture’s not complete.’”
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