Spirit of Things
by Fr. Bob

The Most Bang For Your Buck

I thank the members of the Finance Council for presenting the annual State of the Finances Report this weekend at all Masses. We are blessed with a great Finance Council who devote many hours of their time to the parish so that we can make best use of the money you so generously give to St. Benedict the Abbot.

As a complement to their talk at Mass which deals with where all the money goes to run St. Benedict’s, I would like to share three strategies on how you can help St. Benedict the Abbot most with the money you give.

1. Give to the Parish Share Program — The Parish Share Program funds all diocesan programs and ministries which we as a parish cannot do ourselves, such as hospital chaplains, training of seminarians, Catholic Charities, the Tribunal Office, etc. It also supports the services which the diocese gives to the parishes such as free legal advice, etc.
   
   The way the program works is that the diocese assesses each parish based on their income the previous year. Currently, the rate for parishes without schools is 17.5%, and this year’s assessment for St. Benedict the Abbot is $220,546. The bad news is that we have to pay this amount whether we meet our assessment or not. If we fall short, then it becomes an expense out of our General Operating Fund which hurts the parish. The good news is that the diocese doesn’t take more than the assessment. The parish gets to keep 100% of the money over the assessment without any assessments on that money. So, for example, if you give $100 in the weekly offertory collection, the diocese assesses $17.50 toward the next year’s Parish Share goal. If you give that same $100 to the Parish Share, we get to keep all $100 of that money, free of assessment, once we meet our goal. You can see that how it helps St. Benedict the Abbot when you give to Parish Share — even if you were to divert some of your weekly offering to Parish Share.
    
2. Give To Debt Reduction — All money given to Debt Reduction is also exempt from Parish Share assessment. For example, if you give $100 to debt reduction, then $100 goes directly toward reducing our debt without Parish Share assessment. Currently, our debt from the new church building is $1.5 million, and our monthly interest payment on the debt is about $6,000. We have been paying the interest out of our General Operating Fund so that all of the money given to Debt Reduction can go toward the principal. As the principal comes down, so does the interest expense. Plus, people ask me all the time what we are going to do with the old church space (Pope Benedict Activity Center). It’s a special space to them as maybe they were married there, or buried a parent there, or have some other sentimental attachment. Right now, we use it mostly for the storage areas, and some parish programs, such as VBS, but it’s not in the most pristine condition. We can’t begin to refurbish that space for other uses until we pay off the current debt.
    
3. Support the Gift Card Program — For you, the gift cards which you purchase go toward food or gas or services that you would purchase anyway, so it doesn’t cost you anything extra. For us, we get to keep a percentage of the proceeds of each card we sell which goes directly toward our Parish Debt.

Again, thank you for your generosity to our parish. I hope that you will consider using these three strategies so that St. Benedict can get the most bang from the money that you give.