The Clergy and some laity from the Dioceses in the West African country of Ghana, made mostly of priests in charge of finances, have undergone a four-day training in Church management and how to properly handle finances of Dioceses and Churches.
The facilitators, from America and Germany at the workshop called on the 60 participants of the training especially the Clergy to “opened, transparent and accountable in dealing with Church money in their various capacities”.
Professor Mario Enzler, a Professor at the Catholic University of America (CUA), who was one of the resource persons for the training, said “Priests should be in the forefront and ginger the people to bring out the money for the Mission, noting that openness, transparency and accountability have to be applied in dealing with Church money.
Speaking at a four-day international workshop in Accra from February 25 to 28, 2020 with focus on the development of the technical and professional skills and abilities of Church leaders in their role as administrators and financial administrators, American Professor cautioned Priests not just talk about money but also start some form of enterprise that will bring in money to support the Church in a transparent manner.
The goal of the workshop is to develop the technical and professional skills and abilities of Church leaders in their role as administrators. The workshop is to offer the most up-to-date training and tools and introduce participants to new approaches and methodologies, managerial and organizational techniques necessary for solving problems and preventing administrative crisis.
It is known that Parish Finance Council assists the pastor in the administration of parish temporal matters. An active, well-formed Parish Finance Council is a key element for promoting the financial health of a parish, assuring accountability and assisting the pastor with his temporal responsibilities.
In the administration of temporal goods of the parish, Canon 532 defines the role of the pastor as the authoritative representative of the parish. “The pastor represents the parish in all juridic affairs in accord with the norm of law; he is to see to it that the goods of the parish are administered in accord with the norms of canons 1281-1288.”
In a report from the Department of Social Communications (DEPSOCOM) in Accra seen by Newswatchgh.com, the International Workshop at the National Catholic Secretariat (NCS), Accra was under the auspices of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) and the Programme of Church Management of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome. The training is the first of its kind in recent years of the Church in Ghana.
Professor Mario Enzler who is also a Former Swiss Banker and a Former Swiss Guard to Pope St. John Paul II, urged the participants to move Church Management from mere compliance to ministry, saying “The Church exists to evangelise and the evangelisation ministry “is expensive” therefore, the Church needs money.”
Talking to the participants about the realities of Church Management, with special focus on Church financials and accountability, budgeting, financial controlling and auditing, fraud prevention and detection, he said “The lingering mentality among the people that money will come from outside has to be discouraged, stressing that “Money has to be generated from within the Church and the Church needs to convince her members that money is no longer coming from outside” he noted.
On Communication in the Digital Age, Prof. Enzler challenged the participants especially Priest to make their voices heard on the internet through Facebook, Twitter and other applications associated with social media and digital communication.
“Priests must emulate the example of the Holy Father, Pope Francis had over 60 million fans on his Twitter platform,” he stated adding that “Diocesan websites and parish social media platforms must be established and managed in such a way that they become interesting arena for digital natives such as the youth, veritable grounds for exchange of ideas and for evangelization for the faithful as well as for lapse Catholics and others.”
On his part, Professor Matthew Manion, a Faculty Director for the Centre for Church Management in the Villanova University School of Business, Pennsylvania, United States, dealt with issues of budgeting, financial controlling and auditing and stressed on the need “for each parish or dioceses in Ghana to establish and maintain sound Parish Financial Committees with trusted and committed lay experts as members.
Canon 537 which introduces the Parish Finance Council as a mandated body having an advisory and consultative role with the pastor states that “Each parish is to have a finance council which is regulated by universal law as well as by norms issued by the diocesan bishop; in this council the Christian faithful, selected according to the same norms, aid the pastor in the administration of parish goods with due regard for the prescription of canon 532.”
In other words, the Canon implies that every parish therefore is required to have a Parish Finance Council, both by adherence to the Code of Canon Law and by local norms issued by the diocesan bishop. To be effective the Parish Finance Council should meet regularly with specific agendas and should have access to all the relevant financial information and policies of the parish.
According to the Professor, it was appropriate also to “carry out both internal and external auditing and have a code of conduct with ethical standards for parish or Diocesan workers and cautioned that “a project should be funded before execution, in other words, generate the funds first before spending it.”
In the area of fraud prevention and detection, Prof. Manion counselled that “the Parish priest should as much as possible avoid family and friends type of employment,” advising that “Parish staff and others engaged in parish finance, such as parish Sunday collection counters and Ushers, account clerks and financial secretaries and treasurers should not be kept for too long while Bank statements should be crosschecked and segregation of duties maintained as part of financial control activities.
The educative and formative workshop was rounded off with a presentation by Mr. Colin Howell, the Coordinator of the renowned international Facilitators drawn from a consortium of five Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) collaborating from Germany and the United States of America, who focused on ‘Funding the Mission’ and Fundraising Pipeline Planning.
He stated that Fundraising is a ministry – a form of proclaiming the Gospel and reminded the participants that “they need to ask for funds, they need to raise funds” but he added that “one of your duties as priests is to remind the people that the Church needs financial and intellectual support from them.”
Howell said that true fundraising leads to friend-raising where trust is established through the natural process of friendship, advising Priests not to talk about money “in a manner that will demoralise or shame” parishioners, adding that they (Priests) have to also shun the temptation to “become superstar pastors which may put them on the path of financial insatiability.”
Archbishop Philip Naameh, President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, a participant himself, who opened the training workshop expressed profound gratitude to the formidable team for travelling over very long distances in order to facilitate the workshop., expressed that “since it the first of its kind for the Church in Ghana, it will offer to the participants, the most up-to-date training and tools as well as introduce them to new approaches, methodologies, managerial and organisational techniques necessary for solving problems and preventing administrative crisis.”
He told the participants “I want to thank you for accepting the appointment of your Bishops and Superiors to manage the temporal goods of the Church. If the world is now referred to as a global village, then we must all strive to begin to act in conformity with internationally accepted principles.”
“Being the first of its kind for the Church in Ghana, I would like to urge you the participants to make the utmost use of this opportunity to be active participants throughout these four days to enable you acquire the necessary skills that would enable you to face the world’s new challenges as well as take advantage of new opportunities that the world offers, he said, noting that “This is an opportunity for the local Church to begin to do things differently and in uniformity with international standards.”
The Archbishop reminded them that, “much would be expected of you; such as finding ways to give back the knowledge you have acquired by virtue of participating in this workshop,” adding “You are expected to go back to train in your various dioceses, priests, religious men and women and lay faithful who are involved in managing the temporal goods of the dioceses and religious congregations.”
At the closure of the workshop on February 28, Archbishop Naameh speaking on behalf of the participants, enjoined them to go back to their variDioceses “to retrain their priests, religious men and women and the lay faithful involved in managing the temporal goods of the Church entrusted to their care.”
Among the Resource team from were Hannah Kohn, representing the University of Santa Croce Foundation, Christoph Konopka and Clara Konopka, representing the Christian Adam Foundation.
Source: Newswatchgh.com
