For more than 10 years, the Archdiocese has spent approximately one million euros more each year than it receives. Until 2015, legacies made up for this deficit each year, but for 4 years the Archdiocese has received few legacies , barely a few hundred thousand euros. The diocese also invested last year in the construction of a new seminary in Avignon itself.
But it is especially the policy of massive recruitment of priests for fifteen years which has sealed the cash of the diocese and suddenly it will probably have to change specifies Jean-Claude Paret, Director of retired tax services, parishioner of Pertuis and in charge of the working group on common expenses of the Archdiocese: “The archbishop currently in place in Avignon had a policy which consisted to have a significant presence of priests on the diocese with parish priests in each parish.
A choice also to bring communities to animate certain zones which were not very animated and therefore all this had an effectively significant cost and which generated this financial difficulty “.
Most of the expenses of the Archdiocese are salary costs for people serving parishioners: priests, foreign religious communities, training of seminarians. The same is true of the few lay people who work at the archdiocese: accounting, the treasury, real estate and communication, all of whom serve the parishes.
Would the parishes be reluctant to participate in the recovery of finances?
Another question raised underlines Jean-Claude Paret, the solidarity of the parishes which could be lacking: “The denial of worship brings one million three hundred thousand euros to the diocese but the expense for the priests is one million six hundred thousand. Now it would seem logical that the parishes could participate because they have in total a reserve of four million. But the system means that the Archbishop does not have control over these sums to make his own funding.
It is the canonical property of the parishes. If the parishes are not determined to help the diocese … which would be the least of things because the expenses made by the diocese are for them first and in particular the salaries of the priests and common expenses. Well if they don’t want to participate we find ourselves in a situation which somewhere, canonically, does not necessarily seem relevant. ”
A recovery plan is in place to limit spending
In a press release, the diocese of Avignon details the reductions it intends to apply to save 400,000 euros on the 2019-2020 budget. It’s about “a decrease in the number of priests without jeopardizing proximity, the cessation of funding for the training of foreign seminarians, the decrease in financial aid from the diocese to communities, the cessation of care of learning French but also of the drop in the wage bill of lay people. “
The diocese needs in the short term to replenish a reserve. He is announcing to him that he is to part with certain real estate not used for pastoral work, and at the same time, he therefore does call for solidarity from neighboring dioceses, parishes as well as the faithful, for an exceptional help, to help him to pass the year 2020.
Thus the diocese of Avignon declares that today it is “to the faithful that it is up to them to decide by their generosity to allow or not, the continuity of this strategy which aims to financially support religious life in the Vaucluse and a significant availability of priests. Concretely this means an increase of the participation of each in the last 30%.“
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