Church feels economic pinch, too

MANILA, Philippines – Even the Catholic Church is feeling the economic pinch with the significant drop in collections from the faithful attending Mass, a ranking prelate said.

In a report posted on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Davao Auxiliary
Bishop George Rimando said the Catholic Church is not even exempted from experiencing such economic crisis as seen from the drop in collections from parishes.

Rimando said the financial crisis is everywhere, citing his San Pedro Cathedral parish where despite the increase of faithful attending the Mass, the collections have not increased.

“We can see now that some of our parishes in the archdiocese are encountering financial instability brought by the crisis that we are experiencing in our country,” Rimando said.

He said that even the pastoral office of the archdiocese has no budget for its operations.

The pastoral office takes charge of the various pastoral agencies in the Archdiocese of Davao, he said.

Rimando said some pastoral agencies find it difficult to make ends meet due to scarce funds to finance their operations.

“We do not deny the fact that we are really in crisis,” he said. – Sandy Araneta