Sexual Abuse Crisis and Financial Giving: Are the Wounds Healing?
Jack Rakosky

 

A recent Plain Dealer article cites record collections in NE Ohio parishes as evidence that the “old” wounds of the sexual abuse crisis are healing. However the fine print of statistics detailing giving to Catholic Charities found on the Diocese of Cleveland’s web pages tells a very different story. They indicate not only a large defection of donors immediately after the scandal, but a continuing defection of thousands of donors at the rate of 5%  per year in recent years.

 

 

Note: Statistics for the last three years are still available on the diocesan web site, but the statistics back through 2001 were once available. http://www.clevelandcatholiccharities.org/parish.htm

 

The Catholic Charities number of donors is the single best indicator of continuing negative impact of the sexual abuse crises upon Catholics. Unlike total giving this indicator is not affected by large gifts of individual donors or by conditions in parishes that may motivate Catholics to give more, such as recent threats of parish closures or consolidations.

Also Catholics who decide to no longer give to Catholic Charities are not hurting themselves by reduced services in their local parish. As Cincinnati Archbishop Pilarczyk said of the scandal. "People will give to their parishes because they'll say, 'I like our school and our priest, but not that SOB downtown.' " (The Cincinnati Enquirer Archdiocese strapped for cash December 31, 2006 •• 1495 words •• ID: cin111817992 Article requires payment)

 

However, the continuing decline in numbers of donors to Catholic Charities suggests more is happening than Catholics targeting their anger on the Bishop through Catholic Charities in a way that avoids harming their parish. That might account for the initial decline in donors, but hardly accounts for the continuing decline in recent years. That decline in donors is so impression that if there were a campaign to express disapproval of the bishop by such means, it would have to be called outstandingly successful. Rather, such declines likely express widespread defection in Catholic participation, such as less attendance at Mass, less contributions to their parishes, and many who now identify themselves as former Catholics.

 

But why haven’t parishes been affected financially by such massive disaffection?  The answer is that other parish members have increased their contributions to fill the void. This is true of Catholic Charities, too. Although the number of donors is down by 35% from 2001, total contributions to Catholic Charities are down only by 10%.  As the number of donors has dropped off, the remaining donors have been asked to contribute more so that the average contribution has risen from $121 to $160.  The same phenomenon is likely taking place in parishes. Smaller numbers of parish members are increasing their giving to offset declining mass attendance.

 

The management of the Catholic Church continues to “manage” this crisis by ignoring the large number of Catholics e.g. 35%, who are disaffected, and focusing upon cultivating the increasing loyalty and giving of fewer Catholics. The ten percent of Americans identified by the Pew report as “former Catholics” is likely to grow. See http://religions.pewforum.org/