Catholics Give Less to Their Churches Than Protestants


The wealth of the Catholic denomination, its ornate churches, other properties and helicoptered Popes, is noted by its members. They realize other causes in their circle need money more than their denomination. The denomination has amassed wealth because of its large membership, not the size of individual tithes. Now, its membership, while still huge, is dropping. The Vatican is not giving raises and has in place a hiring freeze. 

In the U.S. Trump is dialing back the federal funding of social programs the Catholic denomination has contracted to run. The link says there is no source of reserves or savings to keep the programs running so people are being laid off. 

President W. Bush when he was Governor of Texas started using religious groups instead of state agencies to save money. He brought the concept with him to the Presidency. I wonder if this visible and well known source of funds for Catholic agencies caused church members to conclude their church no longer needed the donations it once did. Of course, countless millions of donors' money awarded to victims of sexual abuse did not encourage giving either.

Probably it will not be possible to ever boost the amount each Catholic pays to the church. What can be done is to make the economics of churches work. The two big expenses are a building and the priests. While the priests take a "vow of poverty," they still cost parishioners plenty. If the denomination lowered the cost of becoming a priest and eliminated the no marriage requirement there could be more priests and more churches.  Admitting women to the priesthood would help also. The workable system would be on-line training to become a priest. Then, priests could be part-time along with another career and start new parishes wherever there is the opportunity. I realize this would require more humility than is now available.

There is no better predictor of the future of a denomination, or Christianity in general, than money. With money the faith lives on. Without it there is no faith. 

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