After having explored tithing in relation to the contributions a household makes as a percentage of income in last week's column, I would like to talk about the second key component of the tithe in relation to how our parish supports the wider mission of the Church.
The Catholic Church is present locally in mid-Missouri through the Diocese of Jefferson City. The true pastor of the local church, Bishop Shawn McKnight, represents the apostolic succession that manifests our unity through time extending back to the founding of the Church by Christ, and our unity throughout the world as the Catholic Church in union with the Successor of Peter, Pope Francis. Our sacramental, pastoral, and ecclesial unity as the Body of Christ depends on this, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic faith.
The dogmatic constitution of the Church from Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, puts it this way: “The task of proclaiming the Gospel everywhere on earth pertains to the body of pastors, to all of whom in common Christ gave His command, thereby imposing upon them a common duty, as Pope Celestine in his time recommended to the Fathers of the Council of Ephesus. From this it follows that the individual bishops, insofar as their own discharge of their duty permits, are obliged to enter into a community of work among themselves and with the successor of Peter, upon whom was imposed in a special way the great duty of spreading the Christian name. With all their energy, therefore, they must supply to the missions both workers for the harvest and also spiritual and material aid, both directly and on their own account. as well as by arousing the ardent cooperation of the faithful. And finally, the bishops, in a universal fellowship of charity, should gladly extend their fraternal aid to other churches, especially to neighboring and more needy dioceses in accordance with the venerable example of antiquity.”
The parishes that make up the Diocese of Jefferson City have supported our common mission in several ways. The primary financial support has been given through what is called the cathedraticum. In general the cathedraticum for Mary Immaculate has been $25,000 per year. In secular terms, it might be called a tax that we pay monthly that is calculated based on the number of households and the annual income of a parish, taking into account special circumstances such as a Catholic school or particular hardship cases. The cathedraticum then represents a certain amount of our collections and therefore all parishioners contribute to the good of the local church through their offerings.
Another significant contribution to the diocese comes through the annual Catholic Stewardship Appeal. The Catholic Missourian each year in October does a wonderful job of showcasing the diocesan services, institutions, and ministries which are made possible through the CSA. I can attest as a pastor who relies on diocesan offices all the time that all contributions are put to good use by the many dedicated workers at the Catholic Center in Jefferson City and throughout the diocese. All members of the Diocese of Jefferson City are individually asked through direct mail to make a personal and direct contribution to the Diocese. The contributions to the Diocese of Jefferson City by members of our parish were over $31,000 for the 2021 Appeal. Typically we have met or exceeded our targeted goal as a parish.
Specific aspects of the mission of the diocese are supported through special collections. Thus we have traditionally had a second collection at Christmas for the education of seminarians or further education of priests. A second collection at Easter is taken up to assist with the care of infirm or retired priests. There has been a custom of a second collection for the foreign missionary efforts of the diocese, especially for our historical efforts of evangelization in Peru.
As the parish fully implements best practices for stewardship in the new fiscal year that began July 1, we will no longer be paying a monthly cathedraticum. This fall, our parishioners will not participate in the Catholic Stewardship Appeal, which will have its final year this fall for those remaining parishes who will transition to total stewardship tithing in the summer of 2023. Only two special second collections will continue, the Christmas collection for seminary education and the Easter collection for retired priests and religious. These collections remain for two reasons. One is that given the nature of attendance at these two holidays, the Church has an opportunity to invite those who might not otherwise give financial support to our mission. Also, a second collection at these services highlights the extraordinary need for seminary education and for retired priests and religious.
Instead of a cathedraticum payment and the CSA donation, our contribution to the diocese will be in the form of a tithe of our ordinary income. Just as parishioners are asked to embrace the biblical notion of tithing—contributing a specific portion of one’s income to the mission of the Church—so then our parish will give a tithe to the diocese. Each month we will account for our ordinary income and then give 10% of that to the Diocese.
The tithe is a significant change in how we support the diocese, yet there is one more aspect to tithing to figure in regard to the second collections we have had that are called “national collections.” These are the collections that are scattered throughout the year for the various concerns that the Catholic Church in the US have undertaken. These would be the Catholic Campaign for Human Development for charity within the US; the Catholic Relief Services collection, that would be the primary way the Church in the United States offers charity throughout the world; the religious retirement collection; the annual mission collection; Catholic Communications and the Catholic University of America Collection; and the Catholic Home Missions collection.
From now on we will not be contributing directly through second collections. Instead parishioners are asked to include what they would normally give for these programs in their regular tithe to the parish. The parish will express our support through the tithe we give to the Diocese of Jefferson City. And in turn, the diocese will give a tithe of its own to support the national collections and other concerns of the US Catholic Church.
So this is the overview of tithing from a parish point of view. In next week’s column I will talk more about the nuts and bolts of our parish tithe to the diocese and explain a little more how we will account for our income and designate a portion in turn as a tithe to the Diocese of Jefferson City. This would be under the rubric of accountability, a key concept in stewardship. Our transformation will necessarily include providing more information to all parishioners about all aspects of our mission, and the mission of the Diocese of Jefferson City, including specific finance and budgetary concerns. It means we will be able to embrace stewardship not only in theory but in actual practice by knowing the facts and figures on which we base our tithes.