The Church looks towards charity as it faces a loss of €870,000

The Church is calling out to its followers for help as its 2009 financial report shows that it is registering a financial crisis.

6 October 2010, 12:00am
by Miriam Dalli

2 min read

The financial report published by the Maltese Archdiocese reveals that the Church has registered an imbalance of €870,000, despite the State’s contributions to different entities.

In a note to its financial report, the Church said it was hopeful that Maltese Christians would "help us out in this time of need". In a press conference today, administrative secretary Mgr Anton Portelli said that the Church's reserves fund was running out and it is estimated that it will only last the archdiocese until the coming year.

Pastoral secretary Mgr Charles Cordina said that even though the deficit had gone down when compared to the 2008’s €1,017,780, the Church "still needs its followers to understand the costs behind the running of its services."

WATCH: Church's presentation of financial report (from Knisjamalta via YouTube)

“It is now the Church that is begging for people’s charity,” Portelli said, adding that the Church wishes to listen to its faithful’s ideas and suggestions "arising out of a genuine love of the Church”, in a bid to raise money.

Portelli explained that the loss is due to various factors including the increase in the cost of living. “The increase in general expenses, a decrease in the interest paid on fixed income investments and the ever increasing expenses required for the maintenance and restoration works of our old buildings are the cause of this unbalance.”

These operational costs amounted to €11,831,072 in 2009.

Portelli said that for the Church to keep on going with its missions, Maltese Catholics should acknowledge these realities and commit themselves to help the Church in every way possible, including through financial means.

During 2009, the Church invested €530,000 in pastoral services, of which €43,000 were invested in pastoral work amongst youths and €170,500 were invested in the Cana Movement. It also provides accommodation for around 400 immigrants.

The Church has also subsidised an amount of €242,000 to a number of homes which the elderly, children and persons with disabilities. Id-Dar tal-Providenza, one of these entities, has registered a loss of €486,000.

The Church’s Central Fund has invested €505,000 in order to support the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, an increase of 15% since 2008.

€351,000 were allocated to fund the Church’s media, in order to support RTK Radio, the TV unit and the Gensillum online.

In Malta only there are 70 parishes, 54 of which are run by the diocesan clergy. The remaining 16 are run by religious orders. The total amount collected through donations and money collections held in parishes amounted to €4,519,000 in 2009. This balance was 52% less than that of 2008.

Miriam Dalli joined MaltaToday.com.mt in 2010 becoming assistant editor f...

More from Miriam Dalli

Donella Agius •

Why does the retired archbishop Mercieca has a chauffeur, who is naturally paid by the diocese? Is this not a luxury? In several dioceses abroad, the bishop doesn´t have any chauffeur and drives his car himself.

Phillip Martin Micallef •

x kien ma qal xejn l-isqof ' il- bello' ta' ghawdex??..........ghadu jigri b' dik il- 'blue' BMW ??...........maybe some comments from gozo

Pauline Moran •

When the Church needs help they ask for money but when the public needs help they tell you to pray!!!! Hypocrits! All hypocrits...Dont give them a cent. They are all whitewashed tombs! If Jesus was still around he will surely use his whip.

Phillip Martin Micallef •

"imbalance of €870,000, despite the State’s contributions to different entities".............you must be joking!!!!............. mela 1: main expenditure are church school teachers'. these get paid by our taxes and still in the red!!!.....how come these accumulated??........... 2: by giving Eur 500,000 to the ecesastical tribunal???....wrong cause you Eur 20,000 to get an annulament??. dawn il-qabda ipokriti jimxu wara Kristu???.............bil-banek taghhom???

Samir Shukla •

Its a shame people are still give 2 cents, 5 cents or 10 cents during mass. I go to mass at St. Julians. The church is all lit up, clean, fully air condiioned and the collection tray is sometimes full of small coins. Then after mass most of the people go to the restaurant....

•

Sell the art Sell the silver Sell the vestments Give whatever change is left back to the people - there is bound to be lots of change.

Alfred Galea •

Cit. X, look at the first three comments.... 1.Bellonte brings in Gonzi. 2.Zurrieq brings in electricity bill. 3.Truth brings in illegal immigrants. The church needs money, maybe if you guys give a little more than 20 eurocents on Sunday they won't have this problem. The political parties come nowhere near when it comes to helping out the poor and downtrodden yet you guys give them almost a million euros every fall......but when it comes to the church you're worse than Ebenezer himself. Of course NOT EVERYBODY.

Alfred Galea •

•

@South I did not see anything wrong with Zurrieq and Bellonte comments. And if the church was only about spiritual stuff - then we would have a secular state. Given that you know what secular means - may i remind you that PN and the church run the country hand in hand like medieval despots, your prime minister happened to be the nephew of a bishop (what are the odds of that), church has a pro-PN stance often times showing its hand very openly, church gets plenty of tax payers money since PN got in power, priests hold key positions in all media companies - including PBS. You know who does not agree with you just said Mr South - the church itself actually. I have no problem respecting your views and in no way mean to be disrespectful towards you - but its seems that religious people are the ones who have no clue about the church, religion etc. In fact a recent study in the US just confirm that atheist know more about religion, god and church than religious people - and you know, i do not find this surprising at all.

•

What a load of BULL Their bank is flushed with money. They are planning an expansion on EUR1M or more on their schools - spanking new head quarters at Swatar. Now they are asking for Charity. I think their accounts are as hard to prove as their religion. We have to take it on fate they got their numbers right!

•

Jien ma nafx fejn dawn il flus kollha li jingabru fil knesjes kull nhar ta Hadd qed immorru biex jigu ghidu li il knisja ghamlet TELF ta 870,000 Hemm ahna qedin ghidu li investew iktar min nofs miljun ewro Halluna nghixu fil kwiet hadd mil qassisin ma jaghti XEJN hu mil kmamar tan nar QATT ma ghidu li miet qassis fil kmamar tan nar il BOLOH imutu kif ma titghalmux ma tibqawx CWIEC izjed

Donella Agius •

Mons. Anthony Portelli, has Melita cable given not enough commission to the church, when a letter was sent by you to all Church employees to buy their products? In your letter it was said the all church employees will be given several advantages, which in fact was not the case.

•

Maybe they should have spent less money for the Pope´s visit and avoid all the extra pomp.

Nazzareno Pace •

I think that this part says it all ...QUOTE... Portelli explained that the loss is due to various factors including the increase in the cost of living. “The increase in general expenses, a decrease in the interest paid on fixed income investments and the ever incrëasing expenses required for the maintenance ...UNQUOTE... It will be good to know what increase has the church sufferred with the increase in the water and electricity tariffs as it will give a better indication as to what the popolin are going through. The increase in maintenance is also an effect of the local trend to increase prices on a yearly basis on everything. Let us hope that now the chirch is not expecting it's followers to put their hands in their pockets and fork out the money as most cannot even afford the daily comodities, let alone financiing of the church. Maybe assistnace should come from the PN being the party benefitting most votes in the elections from the clergy. I am still waiting for one of them to say a word against the present situation as we used to hear a lot of such omelies int eh 80s. But since May 1987 all this has stopped....even some hymns have changed. Speaking of hymns maybe we should now sing ... il-kummercjalizmu jrid jiblahna ...

Alfred Galea •

Zurrieq and Bellonte.....the church is there for spiritual problems not for social problems...those should be taken care of by the government and its agencies. If you want to help out do so, if not stop your usual anti-church anti-christian bullshit...nobody's forcing you to give.

•

Anthony Bellante you are right. They can start saving by not providing the thousands of euros to the the illegal immigrants and support their repatriation instead of wanting them to stay in Malta.

Patricia Marsh •

'the Church said it was hopeful that Maltese Christians would "help us out in this time of need'. The Maltese Christians are hopeful that the Church help them out in this time of need, speek against the electricity bills, the rise in the cost of living, to name a few. But sorry I forgot, our church has no time to speak on our behalf, it is still busy working on the festa document "Nirrestawraw il-Festi Flimkien". Maybe that's what behind the said document, control the outdoor festa activities so that 'il-fidili' can make more donations to the church instead of the festa decorations, fireworks etc.

•

This goes to show that it is not only Mr Joe Public who is feeling the pinch but our Church as well. And yet, only last week Dr Gonzi riminded us that that the hardship Mr Joe Public is going through is just a perception. Bla bla rhetoric and hiding problems under the carpet wan't solve our predicament, it simply makes them worse until the rot is complete.