Vision 2000 Revisited

The Archdiocese of Miami published an article in the Florida Catholic on September 28, 2007 touting the accomplishments of Vision 2000. According to the Archdiocese of Miami, there was $108,300,000 in pledges made to Vision 2000, of which $89,700,000 was collected. Of the amount collected, only $31,800,000 found its way into the bank account of the Catholic Community Foundation, who is entrusted with the responsibility of collecting and overseeing the disbursement of the Vision 2000 funds. The article states that the remaining $57,900,000 collected was disbursed as follows: $9,000,000 was applied to ABCD 2000; $1,500,000 represented the fundraising costs, and the remaining $47,400,000 was given to parishes.

The problem with the numbers presented by the Archdiocese of Miami in the recent article is that they dont agree with the numbers presented in its previous reports published in The Florida Catholic. For example, The Florida Catholic reported on November 27, 2003 that $63,000,000 was collected and $31.1 million of the money raised by Vision 2000 was reportedly being administered by the Catholic Community Foundation, which is is the independent entity whose role is to ensure that the money raised during Vision 2000 is properly invested and used only for the purposes intended by donors. Since November 27, 2003, the Archdiocese of Miami reportedly collected another $26,000,000 of Vision 2000 funds. Despite this, the total funds deposited in the Catholic Community Foundation only increased from $31.1 million, as reported on November 27, 2003, to $31.8 million as reported on September 28, 2007!

On December 24, 2004 The Florida Catholic reported that $111 million was pledged for Vision 2000 and $74,396,909 was collected as of November 30, 2004. Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami accounted in that article for disbursements of only $50,303,980 ($28,596,088 to Catholic Community Foundation; $11,207,892 for Parish Savings; $9,000,000 for ABCD Drive; and $1,500,000 for Campaign Expenses). Therefore, according to the Archdiocese of Miamis own published records on that date, it failed to account for $24,092,829! Moreover, the audited report submitted for the Catholic Community Foundation stated that as of June 30, 2005, only $27.1 million of the Vision 2000 funds had actually been deposited with the Catholic Community Foundation.

The purpose of Vision 2000 was to create an endowment to fund the Archdioceses ministries for the future. Pursuant to Canon Law 1267 '3, Offerings given by the faithful for a specified purpose may be used only for that purpose. It is highly questionable whether the Archdiocese of Miami has complied with this law with respect to the Vision 2000 funds entrusted to it.

We have repeatedly urged the Archdiocese of Miami to be accountable and transparent in providing an audited report of its collections and disbursements related to Vision 2000. An audited report, as opposed to the Archdioceses self-generated numbers, is necessary because the audit requires an independent review of how those numbers are compiled, requires the numbers to be substantiated with appropriate documents and is performed in accordance with recognized accounting standards and safeguards. For whatever reasons, the Archdiocese has thus far chosen to ignore this request.

Why do the appointed leaders of the Archdiocese of Miami refuse to provide the People of God the Church with an audited report detailing the collections and specific disbursements for Vision 2000? Perhaps they still have something to hide.