When the coin rings

Since some bishops in the Catholic Church are challenging the wisdom of the TRAIN law, President Rodrigo Duterte, meaning no harm or putting up a fight again with the Catholic Church, threw this question back to the inquisitive pastors which, of course, a lot of people is also curious about.

Well, once three pastors were sharing their collection systems and allotment.

The Protestant pastor said that all he does is draw a circle on the ground, then throw all collections up in the air and everything that falls in the circle belongs to God and those that land outside the circle is for him. The Christian minister, on the other hand, would draw a long line and throw all the collected money up in the air and everything that goes on the right belongs to God and those on the left goes to his pocket.

The Catholic priest, for his part, said: “Come on, guys, mine is simple. No drawing circles or lines. All I do is throw all the collections up in the air and God can get what he wants and all that comes down belong to me!”

The Catholic Church has long been into the complications of financial organization and systems such as professional accounting procedures and reporting. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) had long ago initiated fiscal reforms on how monies should be managed effectively in the Church, including the basics of fund sourcing, budgeting, accounting and auditing.

There are regular financial management seminars being sponsored by the CBCP or local churches conducted to acquaint and train pastors and their treasury staff, including their respective pastoral councils, in the intricacies of financial operations.

Financial experts are invited to conduct the seminars.

Standardization of priests’ salaries and allowances, pension and health insurances have been implemented to preempt semblances of discrimination or biased preferences on assignations and workloads which, of course, comes naturally in any functional organization. The bible says the “laborer deserves his pay.”

A system of transparency has been installed in the financial operations of the parishes to assure that the funds are properly disbursed and utilized.

A regular disbursement list would include operational and administrative expenses, services, obligatory contributions to the diocese, special allotments from special funds and other miscellaneous expenses, such as building improvements and beautification projects and, of course, social outreach programs.

There are also institutional debt facility packages for parishes or priests who may wish to avail themselves of such, either for corporate or personal purposes. Socialized financing is common among churches as more financially blessed churches generously share their resources to the less viable ones such as those in missionary or difficult postings.

Of course, no Catholic diocese would put up large sums to purchase a chopper or a private plane or spend for religious propaganda on television or cable TV. Collections would rather finance orphanages, halfway homes, free clinics and homes for the aged, abandoned and the distressed and advocacies such as the environment, human rights, overseas workers and housing.

Money is busy in the churches as collection bags go around where the faithful voluntarily put alms in the bag and not in the obligatory manner called tithing. Still, the Catholic Church prefers alms giving as the manner of Christian giving because it is voluntary and surely comes from the heart.

Yet, the Catholic Church definitely has its share of Judases, those who are caught up in the lure of money and comfort.

However, Judas is just one among the 12. Besides, there have been on record punished and banished personnel because of financial aberrations and scams.

Among priests and pastors, there is a saying, “Ignore those who question where the collections go, they don’t give anyway. Those who give generously on the other hand never ask.”

Well, even those who give can always ask, because the Church can readily answer.