By Fr Martin Sirju Archdiocesan Finance Officer

CADFO (Conference of Antilles Diocesan Fiscal Officers) is of fairly recent vintage. It was formed only in 2002 and its third biennial conference was held from Tuesday, May 16 – Thursday 18, at Emmaus Centre, Arima.

Participants hailed from Antigua, Bermuda, Barbados, Guyana, the Bahamas, Jamaica (Mandeville and Kingston dioceses), St Lucia, Grenada, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Not all participants were official members of CADFO; arrangements still have to be made to officially include St Vincent, Barbados, Suriname, Curaçao and Montego Bay (Jamaica) as member dioceses.

Archbishop Edward Gilbert, CSsR, gave the opening prayer and welcomed everyone. His Grace also made some salient remarks. He started by reminding us that circumstances have changed internationally which affect our flow of aid.

For instance, the clergy sex abuse scandals have left many dioceses in dire straits financially (some of them key supporters of the Holy See) and have even bankrupted a few.

The net effect of all this is that funds are drying up: the Vatican has cut its subsidies and Adveniat has reduced its aid significantly. This leaves us with the unenviable task of having to raise more money locally.

The new situation also calls for “new methods and new strategies” i.e. the Church has to move in circles of big money, not necessarily Roman Catholic money, in order to fulfill its mission.

His Grace believes the money is out there; it is a matter of tapping into it. He suggested the importance of investment and gave Dominica as an example. While he was bishop of Roseau, he invested some money that he did not touch and by the time he left it had matured to a tidy sum.

Regular Sunday offerings, on the other hand, can be use for ongoing maintenance, not investment money. The Archbishop also emphasised the importance of wills: “It takes a long time to build attitude, but a short time to tear them down.”

He revealed that when he was a child one of the constant refrains from the pulpit was: “Remember the Church in your will.” He advised us to return to this proven wisdom and added that people will not give their money just so anymore. The present culture of transparency and accountability demands that we state what project we are raising funds for and how we envisage it coming to reality.

Fr Garfield Rochard, Chairman of CADFO, thanked the Archbishop and reminded participants that the various presentations were being recorded onto DVD and would me made available to parishes so that the various aspects of good fiscal management might be conscientiously pursued.

Keynote Address

Next came Gordon Deane, a member of Assumption parish and a man with a wide resumé in the business of good fiscal management. His keynote address was confident and lucid, and well received.

He admitted his background was in the world of business but was certain that the world of business could offer some significant insights that would aid the mission of the Church in building up the Kingdom of God.

Deane said, “Governance is really about establishing systems and processes which would ensure transparency and accountability in the handling of resources which do not belong to us.

Those processes must fundamentally ensure that funds that are collected are properly accounted for and that they are deployed effectively and efficiently to achieve the priority goals of the organisation.

They also require that persons who contribute funds are not misled and that they understand both why they are contributing them and what they can expect both in terms of the use of these funds and any reporting responsibility which the person who receives the funds will have.”

He then mentioned that often in parishes we do the same things over and over again with little results and no apparent change; in fact, sometimes things get worse. This he felt was often the result of not having a vision, a mission and a plan.

These three terms have become commonplace in human resource management today: “The new [business] culture has a new language and we should know it.” He therefore spoke about a SWOT analysis and a COPS assessment.

Deane spent quite some time on talking about a plan. He reminded us that God had a plan, as did Noah when he built the Ark, as did Solomon when he built the Temple and Nehemiah when he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.

He asked: “Do we have a strategy to reach people who do not come to Church? We can if we want to.” He then went on to give seven points of a good plan:

1. The plan must establish a solid foundation that lasts beyond the plan: the pre-launch stage must be carefully reflected on for strengths and weaknesses.
2. A good plan must clearly define responsibilities: who is responsible for what must be clearly delineated and non-performers should be put out. He shared with us one of his favourite expressions: “Voluntary work is only voluntary until you agree to do it.”
3. A good plan integrates wise counsel from other experienced people (See Proverbs 20:18 and 15:22)
4. A good plan helps planners to focus/quantify their priorities: the most urgent task is not necessarily the most important one.
5. A good plan clearly defines the sequence of tasks: it also identifies the interdependencies between tasks.
6. A good plan clearly defines financial requirements: if the plan we have does not take us far enough, then we devise another plan to generate more resources.
7. A good plan must be flexible and embrace change

To round off his contribution Deane said: “Church planning is an integral part of God’s strategy for reaching a lost world.”

Gordon Deane was thanked for his keynote address and we reconvened to discuss “Diocesan Property Management and Maintenance, Administration and Archives”. But let’s leave that for next week.