By Renée St. Martin Wizeman

Priests, pastors and pastoral administrators, as well as parish office managers, bookkeepers and secretaries gathered for the diocesan Financial Services conference May 27 in Helena.

In his opening remarks at the conference, the diocese’s fifth, Bishop George Leo Thomas explained that he had been preparing remarks for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ general assembly in June. He had been asked to give a response to the plenary session keynote. Part of his remarks, he said, would highlight the strong collaboration between the presbyterate and the laity, collaboration that is a hallmark of the Diocese of Helena.

“The Church here is strong, because we’re all in the soup together,” he said. He said that shared responsibility is among the strengths in the Diocese of Helena, with widely shared ministry and collaboration among “very competent people.” He also said that this approach should trickle down into parish communities, with each parish making use of both a pastoral and finance council to advise the pastor or pastoral administrator. Bishop Thomas noted the ultimate responsibility for a parish and its overall and financial soundness lies with the pastor or pastoral administrator.

“A priest/pastor or pastoral administrator must recognize the difference between delegation and relegation…the responsibility stops on the desk of the primary person (the pastor or pastoral administrator),” he said.

Bishop Thomas used an analogy from the health care world, citing a presentation made during the presbyteral business meeting on May 26. He said that preventive care, early diagnosis, coaching and health indicators are important in the realm of financial health.

The impact of the international financial meltdown and the degree of recovery from it have varied across the diocese, he said. “We have a lot of microclimates in our diocese. We have some areas seeing an early return on their ordinary income, but other communities are still very hard hit by unemployment, mobility and people leaving the [state] to seek employment.”

Bishop Thomas also addressed the revenue flow from the diocese’s capital campaign from Age to Age and the Annual Catholic Appeal, or ACA, formerly known as the Diocesan Offertory Program, or DOP.

“We were told the fiscal year following the close of the campaign would be difficult,” he said. “We’re seeing a shortfall this past fiscal year of around $475,000 (for the annual appeal), which means we’ve really had a belt tightening.” He noted that the capital campaign is very near the goal, and has maintained a 95 percent redemption rate. Having been through four capital campaigns, including campaigns in the Archdiocese of Seattle, Bishop Thomas said the current trend in the Diocese of Helena is consistent with the conventional wisdom of campaign consultants.

The success of the capital campaign, he said, shows that the people of the diocese love the Church and have bought into the work of the Church.

He also mentioned developments with various parish building projects, the new Lincoln Lodge at Legendary Lodge, the Guatemala Mission and funding for Catholic schools.

Sister Rita McGinnis, SCL, the Chancery Services and pastoral planning director, shared information about the progress of Living Stones, the process to determine how equitable distribution of priest personnel will take place in parish communities in the coming years.

Julie Kindle of Good Samaritan Ministries and Thrift Store in Helena spoke about the social justice and aid-tothe- needy ministries that Good Samaritan provides in the Helena area. Kindle said the store, with more than 40,000 square feet of store and warehouse space, is among the largest of its kind in Montana. As of May 10, volunteers had logged 12,869 hours, work valued at $96,000 if those volunteers had received minimum wage, she said.

Dual signature controls were explained by Judy Ober, human resource services director and parish and school financial manager, and by Jacki Frank, the diocese’s auditor from Anderson ZurMuehlen & Co. The diocesan policy for parishes requires that two people sign checks of $2,500 or more.

In the afternoon, Pete McNamee, diocesan finance officer, explained the diocesan combined balance sheet as of May 27. McNamee noted the balance sheet was an “unaudited draft,” as the audits for fiscal years 2007-08 and 2008- 09 are ongoing.

Diocesan staff offered afternoon breakout sessions on parish building projects, accounting procedures, finance and budget reports and planned-giving seminars through the Foundation for the Diocese of Helena.

Responses from the conference evaluation will help determine whether the financial conference takes place yearly or every two years.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 6, June 18, 2010.