To make Catholics aware that they have the power to change Church governing policies by selectively withholding financial donations
To give Catholics an opportunity to speak with a strong united voice
To send a message to bishops that business as usual--abusing our children, covering up these crimes, putting children at risk by shielding criminal priests, and mismanaging financial resources--will no longer be tolerated
No. Withholding one week’s donations will not hurt your parish. Many people take vacations and leave their parish for a week or more every summer. Parishes do not go bankrupt over the summer. However, the Catholic Church paid out over $2 billion dollars in court, legal, public relations, and settlement fees. This is your chance to make sure that a costly scandal like this doesn’t happen again.
No. As followers of Jesus, we are sensitive to our call to help the least among us. We encourage those who withhold to re-direct their donations to their favorite charity, especially one that helps the poor.
Yes, there are alternatives to giving financial donations. And please note that when we say "cash donations," we mean cash, check, money order, credit card donations, and even casino chips (for you Las Vegas types out there).
Remember that there are three ways you can donate to your church: time, treasure (financial assets or goods), and talent.
If you withhold financial assets or goods, you may wish to donate time or talent to your parish or diocese.
If you withhold financial assets, you may wish to donate goods. Here's just one example. In one diocese, Catholics donate cases of diapers to the Pregnancy Care Clinic; food to the pantries; office supplies; gas cards; etc. The bishop doesn't get a dime that way and yet the ministries stay alive.
Let us know how you give non-finnacial donations (goods, time, or talent) in your parish or diocese and we'll publish it on this website. Just send an email to frankdouglas62@yahoo.com.
Yes. You will need the account number for the parish. If your pastor or office staff person isn't willing to give it to you, call the utility company and tell them you are contributing to pay toward the electricity, heat, or whatever bill and ask them for the account number so that your contribution can be properly credited to the parish account. This approach keeps your entire donation within the parish and not subject to the parish assessment that parishes pay to the bishop (in effect the bishop's tax on the parish).
Keeping records of funds withheld seems to be a prudent practice. Withholders who don’t give the funds withheld to a favorite charity right away may wish to segregate the withheld funds in a separate account and release the withheld funds when the bishops change their behavior.
Yes, the amount withheld, at least initially, will be small. We have no target dollar amount to be withheld. Our primary objective is to raise the awareness of Mary and Joe Catholic that they have the power to change church policies using the power of the purse.The amount of money withheld is a secondary objective.
We have no target number. We expect to start small and then build as the movement gathers momentum. We hope additional Catholics will withhold as we call for additional Withholding Sundays.
We can't foretell the future, only guess. The bishops will probably ignore us--unless we're successful. If we're successful, we can expect push back. They'll call us dissidents, a favorite bishop device to attempt to marginalize agents of change. The only things we're dissenting from are dangerous policies that give priority to known and credibly accused child predators over innocent kids and financial management practices from the middle ages. Perhaps the bishops will come up with a theological opinion that if you withhold you're sinning. If we're very successful, we may even hear the word excommunication. The bishops play hardball. That's how they got to be the powerful men they are.
But don't be afraid. They have no power without us, without our money. We pay the salaries, rent, electric bills, and the heating and air conditioning bills.
We take solace in recalling that Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple.
We also recall the words of Scripture:
Exodus 20:20
Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."
Psalm 91:5
You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day
Romans 8:15
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.
The clergy sex abuse scandal burst on the U.S. national scene in January 2002 in Boston. Since then we have only seen half-measures from the bishops to address these heinous crimes against children. The bishops and religious superiors shield known and credibly accused predators and allow them to strike again against our children. In many cases known child predators are still on diocesan payrolls, and you, Mary and Jioe Catholic, are footing the bills.
The bishops' have total and unilateral control of Church finances. Yet, their management of finances has been a disaster.
The Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova's School of Business reported in January 2007 that 85% of U.S. dioceses responding said that they had uncovered embezzlement schemes over the past five years. More than 10% reported that the amounts stolen exceeded half a million dollars. The study reported that the Catholic Church has some of the most rigorous financial guidelines of any denomination, but found that the guidelines were often ignored in parishes. Some of the cash that goes into the collection plate does not always get deposited into the church's bank account because of high-living clerical life-styles or embezzlement or both.
No taxation without representation was a rallying cry of the American Revolution. No national church reform group has tried to exploit the people's power of the purse. We're tired of waiting. We are the people we've been waiting for. Let us act. Together.
While many people are appalled at the bishops' response to the clergy sex abuse crisis and still others are hopping mad about how Church finances are mismanaged, these same Catholics still love their parish communities, their parish church, and their pastors.
But the system is set up, perversely, so that the bishop has all the control. The bishop assigns the pastor. The bishop owns, or controls, all parish assets--financial and real estate. The bishop, in effect, owns everything, lock, stock, and barrel. Although Lincoln freed the slaves, the bishop in effect owns the pastor, who has vowed to obey his bishop. If a pastor crosses a bishop, the bishop will make life miserable for him. Guaranteed.
So, when you withhold money from your parish, you're really withholding it from the bishop (if you doubt this, check your county real estate records.) Even if your parish is separately incorporated, the bishop has ultimate control.
When we withhold, you can bet that the pastor and the bishop will cry poor. They'll say we're trying to bankrupt the church. Of course that's a lot of baloney.
How can the bishops argue we're bankrupting the church when they won't publish independently audited income parish or diocesan statements that show all income (including Sunday Mass donations and all gifts) and a detailed itemization of expenses (including legal and public relations fees), or independently audited parish or diocesan balance sheets that include the current market value of all real estate holdings? The bishops will use their unyielding commitment to organizational financial secrecy to make people feel guilty. That’s one of many unjust tactics used to control the laity.
When withholding, the next question for Catholics, who as Christians are a giving people, is what to do with the money that was once set aside for giving to the parish or the Bishop's Appeal (or whatever the new euphemism might be). We acknowledge that that is a personal decision. People may want to give to another favorite charity or non-profit.
Here are three of our favorites.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP; http://www.snapnetwork.org/) is a volunteer self-help organization of survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their supporters. SNAP works to end the cycle of abuse by survivors supporting survivors in personal healing and by pursuing justice and institutional change by holding individual perpetrators responsible and the church accountable. SNAP works through education and persuasion to change the structure and culture of abuse in the church and society at large.
Road to Recovery (http://www.road-to-recovery.org/wordpress/) offers compassionate counseling to survivors of clergy abuse. It assists survivors with their emotional, psychological, financial, and spiritual needs as they attempt to recover from the effects of sexual abuse. If an abuse survivor is an emergency situation and needs help immediately, call Road to Recovery at (862) 368-2800. All information and correspondence is held in strictest confidence.
The National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children (NAPSAC; http://sapn.nonprofitoffice.com/) is dedicated to the prevention of childhood sexual abuse and the support of survivors through education, advocacy and legal reform. NAPSAC advocates for prevention through legislative and cultural change, protects victims’ rights through the criminal and civil justice systems, educates front-line professionals, educates students entering fields where the care and supervision of children is a focus, and provides resources for survivors.
Other alternatives to the Sunday collection basket are:
A voucher program where folks can contribute to a fund that issues coupons or vouchers which can substitute for their regular contributions to their parish in the Sunday collection, and which can be redeemed by parishes by submitting the coupons for payment. (If done on a big enough scale, the interest earned by the fund would cover the maintenance costs of the fund).
One of the more interesting ideas, already put into place in several places across the country, is for each group or parish to form a "St. Angela's [whatever the name] Parish Foundation" (a non-profit IRS Designated 501 (c)(3) corporation) where parishioners contribute to the foundation instead of the parish. In this way the funds are controlled locally, away from the itchy fingers of the bishop. This approach promotes a real sense of ownership. Parishioners becomes owners rather than renters of the bishop in the last feudal system in the Western World. This approach results in more local control, more local involvement in the financial affairs, more local ownership of various parish projects and ministries. Parishioners would sit on and control the Board of Trustees of the foundation. They could decide what renovations, expansion, programs, even which priests, etc. should receive parish support with the local bishop being cut out of the mix - because he won't be able to get his portion of parish revenues to TAX. Many people think this kind of idea has real promise.
There are probably many more workable ideas. But the point being is that Catholics could begin to target their donations and force the clerical power structure to comply with their provisions and priorities for dispersing the funds. Whatever program is adopted should emphasize the concept that church property is owned, or held in trust, for the local members of the church, not the "corporation sole" of the bishop.
Let the pastor/parish know you're withholding by putting their envelope in the basket and writing on it: This is the amount you would have received. It is going elsewhere because....
We have Church Canon Law on our side. Canon 212.3 says the faithful "have the right and even the duty" to let pastors know their opinion on matters that pertain to the good of the Church. There is no better way of an expressing an opinion than through the universal language of money. We are not opposing doctrine or dogma. We want our kids safe and the money we donate to be managed without secrecy and with the principles of good stewardship, transparency, and accountability.
