NEW ORLEANS (RNS) The Archdiocese of New Orleans’ first financial report since Hurricane Katrina shows the regional church running in the black, with parish collections comparable to pre-storm levels, even though the church lost an estimated 20 percent of its parishioners.
The data were more detailed than any previous statement of church finances in years. Some data about specific church operations or ministries were reported for the first time, making comparisons to pre-storm conditions impossible.
Church spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey said the report painted a picture of the church as “cautiously stable” financially.
The data cover two fiscal years, from July 1, 2006 (the difficult first summer after Katrina) to June 30, 2008, when the church was just beginning to implement a reorganization plan that reconfigured, merged and closed dozens of parishes.
Generally, the church said its central offices and major ministries closed out fiscal 2008 about $510,000 in the black, having collected $36 million. The church had run a $6.2 million deficit the year before.
Perhaps more remarkably, however, the church said that in 2007-08 Catholics contributed $48.2 million in collection plates for the support of the archdiocese, as well as their own parishes and schools. The comparable number the year before was $45.4 million.
In the fiscal year that ended during the summer of 2004 — the last year for which figures are available — the collections total was $46.8 million, the church said in an early 2005 report that was not part of the recent disclosures.
Comiskey said data collected since the economic downturn began in September indicates that collection plate income continues to hold steady.
Income flowing into Catholic Charities collapsed from $121.7 million to $75.4 million, almost all of that due to a tail-off in Katrina-motivated giving from the national church and other sources, Comiskey said.
Charles Zech, a church finance expert at Villanova University, said it’s “an embarrassment how United States (Catholic) dioceses are not accountable for their finances,” and gave New Orleans high marks for issuing the report.
