Accountability and Transparency
ACCOUNTABILITY
There is no clear reason
why religious organizations
should be exempt from
the duty to disclose
financial information
required of other
nonprofit charities.
We need a law
to help to bring religious groups
into the modern era of
financial accountability.
The need, is rooted in the struggles
of Catholic parishioners
to glean financial information
from the hierarchy
during the church's ongoing,
controversial efforts
to close OUR parishes
and their Fraudulent misuse
of OUR donations.
Donors, parishioners,
and neighbors of any congregation,
regardless of denomination,
would benefit
from the requirements
for greater transparency.
Let’s require every
charitable organization,
both religious and secular,
to list each piece of real property
it owns
as part of its annual financial report.
Currently, such information
is scattered
in property registries
across the states,
often under real estate trusts.
Nonprofit organizations
other than religious organizations
are required to provide
annual reports
of basic financial data, such as
top salaries, fund balances, and
gross revenues and expenses.
That is a small price to ask
in return for freedom
from property taxes,
as well as sales tax exemptions,
special mailing rates,
and other privileges.
Donors to educational,medical,
and social service charities
use financial disclosures
to track fundraising efforts and
protect against waste and fraud.
Contributors to religious organizations
are just as deserving of
such protections.
But they are left in the dark.
Financial accountability
is another way to have
moral accountability.
It is likely that opponents of a bill
will perceive it as an assault on
the church-state
wall of separation.
But it is hard to see
how a requirement
to disclose basic financial records
amounts to
a constitutional violation.
The bill would apply equally
to all denominations.
And the bill poses no obvious threat
of state entanglement
with religious beliefs.
All charities,
including religious organizations,
were required to report
financial information
and property holdings
in the 1930s and '40s,
though enforcement was lacking.
Churches used
their unquestioned clout in 1954
to exempt themselves from the law,
creating today's two-tier system
of financial disclosure.
We now has an opportunity to
serve believers
with financial accountability.
CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS!
I think the stories Fr.
I think the stories Fr. Frank refer to are from NCR May 24. The cover story: Priests post scandal: How their lives and ministry have changed. Here is how the may story begins:
Scandal reverberates in U.S. priests' lives
By EMILIANO HUET-VAUGHN
Five years after cases of child sex abuse in the Catholic church broke in the national media, priests across the country report that their public image still suffers because of it and ramifications from both the abuse and the church’s handling of it continue to be felt today.
Priests are angry with church leaders for what they perceive to be a shirking of responsibility by the hierarchy for its part in perpetuating past sex abuse through cover-ups and reassignments of pedophile priests. But priests also express concern about their own rights, fearing a church practice of sheltering guilty priests has been replaced by one that inadvertently punishes the innocent along with the guilty.
Priests also say fear of accusation has created an overcautious climate, leading them to pull back from youth ministry, jeopardizing priests’ role as a provider of spiritual guidance to young Catholics.
“A priest talked to me last week and said he used to have a pretty dynamic relationship with minors and a good ministry to minors,” said psychologist Fr. Stephen J. Rossetti of St. Luke’s Institute in Washington. “He said, ‘I’d never do that again.’ ”
Dennis Coday, NCR cafe management
There are people everywhere
There are people everywhere who have been so sheltered that just hearing about the sexuality of priests makes them uncomfortable. In the wake of the pedophilia scandal they have become alert to something of which they have no knowledge or experience and so scrutinize every action of a priest for clues as to whether he leads a secret sexual life.
Though I am not a priest, I came as a stranger into a community that experienced problems of a different nature that likely grew out of the suspiciousness aroused by the way the Church handled this problem in other places. I know from experience that it is difficult to function naturally when people are forever scrutinizing one's actions for signs of deviance. Their fears are great, and one must be patient with the ugly thoughts they have. God can help with this, and so can socializing and exercising, because it is stressful.
The best advice I would give to a priest who feels himself to be under unwarranted scrutiny is to continue to be friendly while doing what it is he should be doing, because if he is falsely accused, then he will have made friends in the community who can help him to become part of things when he returns to it. The absolute worst thing he can do is to worry that someone might think he is a pedophile or wonder who might be thinking that, and the second worst thing he can do is to hide himself away out of fear of being falsely accused.
Frank Vitus I was looking
Frank Vitus I was looking for a place to comment on two articles on clergy sexual abuse. One the process that robs the priest from due process, and two from an article talking about the effects. Both articles I agree with whole heartily. We have a priest who's case was sent to Rome, it was decided that the priest should be re instated and here he remains living at home and still not allowed to function as a priest. In regards to the effects of the clergy abuse on the clergy I thought, the ministry that many good priests had with youth is history. No more Fr. Flanagan's, or John Bosco's and who hurts, still children.