U.S. dioceses facing financial squeeze, foundation leader says

Published: 2006-06-30

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Catholic dioceses in the United States "appear to be running through their reserves at an alarming rate," Francis J. Butler, president of Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities, told the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management June 29. The round table, a gathering of more than 200 top Catholic executives in business, finance, law, philanthropy, academia, nonprofits and church institutions, including a dozen bishops, met in Philadelphia to discuss ways to improve the church's fundraising and financial management and reporting practices. Butler said he recently interviewed financial officers of several dioceses he considered "fairly typical and well-managed. The findings are striking," he said. "In the past eight years one archdiocese experienced a 47 percent decline in unrestricted net assets, whose value is probably the best barometer of financial health," he said. "This amounts to (a) decline of a whopping $16 million a year."

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