Last month, two Connecticut legislators proposed a bill that would transfer parochial authority from an individual Catholic pastor to a board of elected lay members.
The suggested arrangement is probably not much different from what many Protestant communities and Jewish congregations already experience.
Connecticut has not been alone in experiencing some underhanded financial dealings on the part of a very few clergy and a few parish employees.
Thousands, and in fact, millions of dollars have apparently been filling clerical pockets rather than church accounts. The scandal is undeniable.
Nonetheless, the average parishioner might not be aware of how many financial safeguards have been incorporated into parish life here in the Diocese of Providence and no doubt elsewhere.
Donations are brought from church to the rectory in tamper proofs bags, which are opened by rotating teams of four or more parishioners who co-sign the tally sheets and then deposit the weekly collection in the local bank’s night deposit vault. Annual financial reports are submitted to the diocese and periodic audits are mandated.
Years ago, parish monies were handled very cozily. A housekeeper or a janitor might have handled the entire matter.
Nowadays very little money passes through any one individual’s hands.
The Connecticut proposal was quickly withdrawn when separation of Church and state issues were brought up by vociferous parishioners.
Even the local branch of Voice of the Faithful, which certainly yearns for more lay involvement in Church governance, saw this legislation as inappropriate. Parish priests have obviously not run every institution in the Catholic world.
One thinks of religious brothers and sisters, of monastic monks and nuns, of hostels and food pantries and bookstores that have been ably run by non-ordained Church members for centuries.
And one might also think of the many other non-Catholic religious bodies in which authority rests clearly and effectively in the hands of the laity.
So the prevailing Catholic practice of an ordained priest being in charge of a parish is not just a matter of practicality or expertise or proficiency.
There has been many a mother superior who ran her convent better than the reverend pastor ran his rectory.
And some parish council presidents might be abler businessmen than the clergyman who signs the checks. Rather, the Catholic priest is in charge of a parish for sacramental not economic reasons.
In spite of any evidence to the contrary, the heart of the Catholic community is not the rectory safe or the parish checkbook or the residual value of the church property.
The central object of Catholic life is the altar where the Father is worshiped and the Son’s sacrifice is renewed and the Spirit’s grace is dispensed.
All other parish ministries — Catholic education, care of the sick, social justice, the liturgical year, mission outreach — all draw their strength from and exist to enhance what transpires at the altar. And clearly in Catholic life, it is the priest who uniquely ministers at the parish altar. Authority in the Catholic Church derives not from the consent of the governed as in civic life and as some reformers might want.
Authority in the Catholic Church derives entirely from the will of Christ who ordained that bishops, priests and deacons be his ministers and his dispensers of the mysteries of God.
The Catholic Church is fundamentally and inherently a sacramental church.
By placing both sacramental and financial authority ultimately in the hands of the ordained minister, the Church is emphasizing its own sacramental nature, its own priestly character, its own hierarchical makeup. Appropriately (if somewhat crudely), he who dispenses the sacraments also dispenses the funds.
The Catholic Church may never exalt the will of the community, no matter how enlightened, over the will of Christ as expressed clearly in Scripture and continuously in tradition.
The uniqueness of the priest in parish life stresses the uniqueness of the altar in parish life.
Catholic life flows from the sanctuary out into the nave. Not vice versa.
Financial accountability has become more and more a part of parish life these past few years just as structural soundness has been more enforced for parish buildings and educational professionalism has been mandated for parish schools.
These modern accommodations certainly do not violate the will of Christ. But a fracture between authority and altar would undoubtedly deflect the plan of Christ.
