Word: gollins
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...authors of the church-as-Fort Knox school, the favorite target, naturally enough, is the Roman Catholic Church and its prosperous American branch. Five years ago, Business Journalist James Gollin (Pay Now, Die Later), a nonpracticing Jew, decided it was time to stop the guesswork and to start investigating the secret church accounts. He distills his results in Worldly Goods (Random House; $10), a fascinating book and the first reliable report on American Catholic wealth...
Instead of a giant money machine, Gollin has discovered a religious empire that is decentralized, poorly managed and barely able to keep going at its current level. On paper, his estimate of the total wealth of the 48 million-member church is impressive. He calculates the combined assets of U.S. dioceses and religious orders at $34.2 billion, which is only slightly less than the worth of American Telephone and Telegraph. But Catholic assets consist mostly of churches and schools, which are costly to run and consume income instead of producing...
...notch above the Rockefeller Foundation. But this money is often badly invested. One bank trust officer scanned a diocesan portfolio and remarked, "If your grandmother were unusually timid, this is what she'd do with her money." Sometimes the yield does not even cover the cost of investment. Gollin thinks U.S. dioceses are "perhaps the least effectual investment institution in this country, if not in the world...
...Gollin says the bishops are partly to blame for the myths about Catholic wealth because they keep money matters secret. This "famine of information" also exists within church councils. The bishops are misinformed about their own holdings and have plunged into ill-advised building sprees because they did not realize how poor they really were. Another victim of secrecy is the beleaguered parochial school system, which consumes 60% of parish incomes. Gollin says that new public support will never come until the account books are opened and the bishops convince taxpayers that the schools really need the money...
Bemoaning the economic ignorance of most priests, a financial adviser to the New York archdiocese told Gollin, "It's a good thing they have God on their side." They need secular help as well. Urban parishes increasingly depend on raffles, lotteries, Monte Carlo nights and bingo to make ends meet. Priests often consider gambling demeaning, if not immoral, but their parishes need it. The annual $15,000 or so it provides may keep the parish school open. One priest explains, "Bingo isn't a sign of greed. It's a confession of defeat-an admission that...