The Cost of Catholic Parishes and Schools.

When the bishop calls a priest to tell him he would like to make him a pastor (of all things!), the conversation can cause some disorientation. Friends of mine have committed poetry in their first communication with parishioners: not the best way to get started! Consider two other moments in the life of the very new pastor: the moment when he has to look for the reset button on the boiler (nobody mentioned this in the seminary); and the moment when he went to the bank and the parish's accounts were changed to respond to his signature. He is now signing checks for the parish school and its faculty, the rectory and its staff, for his fellow priests, for the bishop and his chancery, and for the upkeep and furnishing of the church. In many cases he is writing individual checks for sums larger than his yearly salary. In some cases he is looking at a final monthly balance which inspires more faith than confidence.

And now come the questions: Will the parish school eat up parish monies to the extent that other program (for the elderly, for young adults, for those wishing to study and pray) cannot be started or sustained? Can he hire people to help with the parish's ministry now that union contracts and work rules have to be considered? Even religious sisters are under contract.

And what will his relationship be to his parishioners? Is he now a bill collector (tuition) and does he have to compromise pulpit time with old-time money-collecting sermons? What about families which say they are "very Catholic" and want to use a great many of the parish's services, most especially the parish school, but hardly ever find time for worship and the Sunday gathering? The idea of registering and using envelopes can cause an epiphany--or something else!

And what about the impact on the parish and its school of a troubled urban society? Often the parochial school is a haven of safety and learning where children are cared for and can flourish. Nevertheless, some seeking to use the school are ambivalent about their relationship to Catholicism. I have had experiences of children professing a fundamentalist religion who made it nearly impossible to conduct religion classes. The best solution is probably to admit to the school those non-Catholics who are committed to some form of ecumenism.

The economic questions associated with a Catholic school which must charge tuition are daunting. For example, a Catholic who doesn't practice the faith in any regular fashion: charge a higher tuition? But what about the opportunity to evangelize? Or a non-Catholic (with an ecumenical sensitivity) who professes no religion at all. How do we set tuition for these families? If the parish is subsidizing the school, as is so often the case, should that subsidy apply only to registered and practicing Catholics from the parish? Should all others pay a tuition based upon the cost of the education?

What about the most challenging question of all: Are we, in charging tuition, damaging the unity of the parish by making the school available only to those who can afford it? In New York City we are told that more Catholic children attend public school than attend Catholic schools. What are the implications for a parish budget of such a reality? How do we devise ways to serve all our people?

Joseph Claude Harris's The Cost of Catholic Parishes and Schools says little about the spiritual leader we like to think we become when we acquire the title of pastor. It does say a great deal about the money which is necessary for the parish and its school, its getting and spending. I like Harris's way of concluding that much of this can somehow represent something Catholic.

In an early chapter, Harris discusses what research and analysis can tell us about the level of Catholic giving. The chapter is a good one, probably the most complete to date. Compared to others in Protestant churches, Catholics in their support of their parishes don't seem to come off so well. We've all heard the story about the dollar bill that boasted to the five-dollar bill that it was holier--because it went to church so often!

There is, however, a part of me wondering if some of the difference between ourselves and our Protestant friends is that they are not supporting so many commitments to religious orders and schools and hospitals and social agencies and missions. Yet in spite of these commitments, Harris finds examples of vibrant and enormously successful parishes which respond with enthusiasm and extraordinary generosity. In these instances he finds an energetic and empowering pastor who finds a way to encourage and enable the idealism of his people. Most Catholics accept that to some degree the pastor must represent the formalities of the institutional church. Most Catholics hope there will be more to it than that. Harris finds examples where a great deal more has been accomplished.

The book's best chapter, to my mind, discusses the emerging role of the laity in responsible financial stewardship in the church. If most parishes had a financial council of five people, and there are 19,000 parishes, then nearly 95,000 Catholics would be involved in the financial decision making of the church. To these responsible people, Harris recommends Professor Regina Hurzlinger's four questions: Are the organization's goals consistent with its financial resources? Is the organization practicing intergenerational equity? Are the sources and uses of funds appropriately matched? Is the organization sustainable?

Would it be too much to say that thus far the effects of all this consultation are not too obvious? We hear often enough about some bishops who have yet to see a dollar they didn't want to spend; and what can we say about pastors who conceive a new program with each lunar cycle? Too often we get little hard financial information from the parish or the financial offices of the diocese. And we sense that even the 95,000 people associated with church and parish financial councils are aware that they need more information, more tools for judgment, more of a sense of cooperating toward common supernatural goals.

Talk to priests in dioceses where the finances are mismanaged and the structures of the church neglected. Almost every priest can detail waste and foolishness; many can articulate the hopelessness such neglect begets. Too often there is a sense that what is needed is to get the diocese to close a lot of schools and parishes, to get the accounts balanced, and to set off with a new bishop in new directions. Harris's books is important--almost beyond words--because his research shows that considered as a whole the parishes and the dioceses are for the most part successful. The church is not broke; most parishes will be able to sustain themselves.

As good as the news appears to be, we might remind ourselves of some of the things history teaches us about the church: practical solutions today--for example, regionalization of our schools, closing small parishes, and arranging for larger--are not always as practical as they might seem for tomorrow's world. Enormous parish churches, once the expression and symbol of vibrant faith communities and now located in struggling neighborhoods of the inner cities of New York, Newark, Detroit, and Chicago, testify to the fragile quality of practical church decision making. We appear to be good at starting things--we build buildings and promote activities--but when they no longer serve their sacred purposes, we have a serious tendency to consider what might be called the "museum alternative," whereby at enormous expense we preserve the buildings. Their beauty is often consoling; their silence a forlorn plea for people to come, to be interested, to care.

In effect, the history of the church's efforts in organizing itself is tense and difficult. It is an art form and doesn't always get good reviews! One view of the church is that it is comprised of numerous parish communities, each a small, even intimate, faith community with a responsible pastor and responding to a chief shepherd. Another way of looking at these matters sees a diocese as a gathering of branch offices, each under the direction of a branch manager, who in turn responds to a kind of sacred CEO. A sense of time and particularity is hard put to survive in this latter circumstance. Much as Saint Paul deferred to Saint Peter, and much as he encouraged unity among the faithful, he nevertheless wrote his letters to communities which were singular and which had different and even unique circumstances. Clearly he was at ease with the particular. Recent discussions of "base communities" are part of the tension of what is local as against what is central. Today when we organize for survival we often can succeed in making a building or an activity survive for a time. Making sure people will use and care for the building, and that they are interested and will support the activity is another matter. Think of the many beautiful and historic buildings of Europe. Many, some of them ecclesiastical, are empty spaces crying out for people. At least initially there is a difference between serving a locality and serving a region. We live in interesting times!

Finally, it might not be out of place for those making decisions in the church to recognize that as we are beginning to live in the age of a laity which shares many of the ministries of the church and its mission, so also we are starting to take on financial responsibilities of a greater magnitude. To hire a lay person with family responsibilities and then to transfer or even to discharge that person is a step of greater moral complication than making a change of a sister, a brother, or a priest. Great hurt can accompany thoughtless policy. Great good can come from a witness of Christ-like concern for those serving the church. That concern will have financial implications.

There are people who avidly read the box scores for every NBA game. I even know people who like to read market reports in the daily papers. At first sight it might appear this is a book for people who wish to immerse themselves in the agate typefaces of church financial reports.

But it is also a book for those Catholics who pay little attention to the connections among money, stewardship, and a sense of Catholic purpose. The church does not produce a marketable product. Rather, in response to its sacred mission it is the occasion of philanthropy, and through the generosity of its faithful it manages to become a mediating institution in a society which is not always comfortable with its presence. Harris can help one understand such things. His research is good. Not only is it extensive, it is sensitive to the moment in which we try to be church.

All in all there is more good news than we might suspect. But as a church we have a lot to think about. Highly recommended.