Pentecost is the traditional birthday of the Church. Of course by “Church” we are not speaking about a building, but rather the community of believers united by the Holy Spirit to one another and to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is to the Church as what the soul is to the body. The body is made up of many parts, as St. Paul writes in one of his letters, but without the soul – that animating force – there is no life. Likewise, the Holy Spirit gives life to the Church, making it more than just a group of people who hangout together from time to time. The Church is the Bride of Christ.

I thought that this would be an appropriate time to look at how we are doing as Church. So much can be written about just about the last year in the Universal Church, and about the Church in the United States. It has been a tough year. The scandal of former Cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, opened – or should I say “re-opened” – the tragedy of sexual abuse in the Church by members of the clergy. Over 30 priests and deacons from our own Diocese of Trenton have been removed from ministry due to credible allegations of child sexual abuse. Many people are hurt and angry about the situation. I can assure you, that many of us priests are just as hurt and angry about it too. Mass attendance is down worldwide. Here in the Diocese of Trenton we estimate that less than 20% of Catholics attend Mass each week. Many of our Catholic schools are hurting from low enrollment, some are likely to close.

But I want to spend sometime looking even more locally; how are we, as a parish, doing? Like most things, we are doing some things really well, and there are some areas where we need some improvement. The Pastoral Council, the deacons, and I are going to be looking more intensely over the next couple of months at how we match up on some of the more common criteria of what makes a parish vibrant. For now I need to address one of the most pressing issues – our finances.

I have asked Trish, our business manager, to start putting a summary of our monthly expenses and income. Expenses will include things like Personnel Costs (salaries, benefits, etc), utilities for each of our buildings, Office operations (lease of equipment, supplies, etc.), and Diocesan expenses (Assessment, Property Liability Insurance, Educational Co-Sponsorship). Income will be our First Collections, Debt Reduction Collections, gifts, rent and rebates. 

The bottomline is our parish is not able to pay its bills. We estimate that we need about $10,000 each week in our first collection to pay our bills; we are average less than $7000. Our overall debt is about $150,000 (owed to the Diocese for unpaid back assessments), and while that is not as bad as the debts that some of our neighboring parishes, it is continuing to grow. The Bishops has made it clear to the pastors that parishes that cannot pay their bills will not be able to stay open. The Diocese is no longer in a position to cover for parishes.

Maybe collections are down because people are angry with the Church. Maybe they are angry with me. But looking at trends, both attendance and collections have been declining since before I arrived here as pastor, and before the latest scandals. Whatever the reasons, we all need to pray about this, and work towards making this parish vibrant and financially viable. Christ has guaranteed that the Universal Church will always survive, and with the shortage of priests, I do not have to worry about being out of work. But I want Resurrection Parish to not just survive but thrive. Only all of you can make that happen.