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May 16, 2008
Financial review for Milwaukee Archdiocese parishes planned More than 200 parishes in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee will undergo financial reviews by outside professionals, a Catholic official said. Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan decided to require the reviews after consulting with advisers, but is awaiting recommendations from a special committee on how extensive and how frequent the reviews should be, said Katie Hoeller, director of the Parish and School Financial Services Office. Dolan discussed the matter in his Thursday column in the archdiocesan newspaper, saying the church "must be scrupulous in sound stewardship of the money entrusted to us by God's people." He also noted the archdiocese itself has had an annual audit for decades. The reviews of parish finances would cover more than $198 million in unrestricted donations and fees that parishes and their schools collect each year. The move comes amid a larger effort by U.S. Catholic bishops to improve church stewardship and tighten financial accountability in the aftermath of the priest sexual abuse scandals. The U.S. bishops conference strongly encouraged dioceses last November to routinely audit parishes. "Every church has the same problem of being too trusting of their priests and ministers and church workers," said Chuck Zech, director of the Center for the Study of Church Management at Villanova University. "It's not unique to the Catholic Church," he said. "... No one would think that a priest would embezzle, and no one would think that a church worker would, so they don't put in the kinds of internal controls common in the business world." The Milwaukee archdiocese's financial guidelines call for an internal financial review of each parish every four years to make sure it is following the required accounting procedures. But Hoeller said that has not been done since 2000 because of additional duties given to the archdiocese's Financial Services Office. About 25 parishes have had annual reviews, either because they requested them or because of irregularities in the parish's financial reports, the turnover of key parish staff members, the posting of deficit budgets or other factors, she said.
Villanova School of Business 2008 Media Report