Donations drop blamed as priests’ salaries taken out of funds
A DIOCESE has said it had no money to pay priests’ wages at Christmas because of a major drop in donations. yesterday: “There was no money at Christmas and we had to get €5,000 from each parish out of parish funds.
“Long-term, it’s not sustainable... it’s seriously depleted, that fund.”
Priests receive a basic salary of €21,000 per year and this can be added to by up to €5,000 every 12 months because of allowances for certain ceremonies.
Fr Power was on WLR FM’S Deise Today programme to discuss the issue of using contactless card payments to collect money from parishioners.
The customary “basket collection” is used for church maintenance and upkeep and has always been kept separate to the “envelope collection”.
However, Fr Power said this money hasn’t been enough in recent times to make up priests’ salaries.
It’s possible each parish will be set a minimum amount of money to raise, to ensure the payments can be maintained.
Fr Power said: “Each parish should be contributing enough to the common fund to support its own priests.
“If not, maybe they would have to contribute from the basket collection.”
There are a number of reasons why fundraising from traditional sources is down, he said.
A decrease in the amount of people attending Mass, an the increase in the amount of the congregation who have turned away from the church, and younger people who do attend from time to time for special occasions or funerals not being in the habit of making contributions. Fr Power accepted scandals within the Catholic Church in recent decades has “undermined our credibility and our moral authority” and said many people’s attitude to the Church has “radically changed” in the last few years.
WLR FM YESTERDAY
Average basic salary of priest in the diocese before expenses
There was no money at Xmas and €5,000 had to come out of parishes FATHER LIAM POWER