Financial Accountability and Transparency
If the hierarchy of the Catholic Church claim to be the leaders of the Church that Jesus established then they, like Jesus, must be leaders of light and not darkness, truth and not deception, openness and not secretiveness, honesty and not dishonesty, inclusiveness and not exclusiveness, transparent and not hidden, collaborative servants and not despots. We previously found that many of these appointed leaders failed to exemplify the type of leadership that Jesus exemplified with respect to their handling of the sexual abuse crisis. This same lack of leadership continues today with the hierarchy’s mishandling of the Church’s finances.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley recently issued an audited financial report for the Archdiocese of Boston for the 2004 and 2005 fiscal years. The report disclosed the Archdiocese of Boston sustained a $46 million deficit during that period, despite reporting assets of $330 million. The Archdiocese of Boston reportedly paid out more than $150 million in settlement of claims for sexual abuse of minors by priests as of June, 2005. In presenting the financial report, Cardinal O’Malley stated, “The motivation for the transparency is to help people feel a part of the archdiocese. We're not trying to keep secrets from people. We're not trying to deceive them. We're trying to use the limited resources we have for the mission of the church."
We urge 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 Archdiocese’s 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.
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Canon Law provides that when funds are given for a specific purpose, they may only be used by the officials of the Church for that purpose. (Can. 1267 §3). It is highly questionable whether the Archdiocese of Miami has complied with this law with respect to the Vision 2000 funds entrusted to it.
For example, the December 24, 2004 issue of the Archdiocese of Miami owned newspaper, The Florida Catholic, reports that $111 million was pledged for Vision 2000 and $74,396,909 was collected as of November 30, 2004. Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami accounts 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 Miami’s own published records on that date, it fails to account for $24,092,829! Moreover, the audited reported submitted for the Catholic Community Foundation, the entity entrusted with the responsibility for overseeing the collection and distribution of the Vision 2000 funds, showed that as of June 30, 2005 only $27.1 million of the Vision 2000 funds had actually been deposited with the Catholic Community Foundation.
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? In contrast to the transparency sought by Cardinal O’Malley, is the refusal to provide the requisite audited report concerning the millions of dollars received and designated expressly for use of Vision 2000, the Archbishop of Miami’s intention to “keep secrets from people” and “to deceive them?”
We pray that the same light of accountability and transparency that Cardinal O’Malley has now chosen to pursue will enlighten the Archbishop of Miami to do likewise by producing the requested audited financial reports pertaining to the Vision 2000 funds. We further pray that the Archbishop and all Pastors of the Archdiocese of Miami will fully embrace the open, truthful, inclusive servant and collaborative leadership that Jesus embraced and exemplified. Only then can we begin to restore trust.
