The costs of the Curia cover the funding of the main pastoral activities of the Diocese – adult formation, child protection, education, vocations and liturgy, care of buildings, youth ministry, historic churches commission, communication, the costs of the Bishop and the costs of the Curial Office. This year we include the payments for the diocesan priests’ pension fund.

Figure 1 shows where the money comes from including the levy on each parish to contribute to the costs (£625000). The parishes also pay £82000 to the priests’ pension fund. The bank and building society interest is high (£272000) as the advice from our professional advisers is that we keep the majority of our money in cash rather than stocks and bonds at the present time.

Figure 2 shows where the money goes to with Diocesan Services – our pastoral activities taking the major share – the breakdown of these is shown in Figure 3.

Monies we pay over to others are shown in Figure 4 – the priests pension fund payments are passed to the pension providers – Scottish Equitable, £48000 is paid to the Bishops Conference for national activities whilst £12000 is paid as interest to parishes and others who have money invested by the Diocese. The Brophy fund makes payments to our older retired priests – those who retired before we had a pension fund, whilst the Housekeepers fund covers payments we make each Christmas to retired priests housekeepers who had worked for one or more priests for 25 years.

Figure 5 shows the costs of the Curial Office whilst in Figure 6 the professional costs to our bankers, accountants and solicitors are detailed.

Parishes pay levies using what is called ‘The Just System’ which means that every parish pays its contribution according to its financial resources – small parishes pay only a small amount whilst the larger parishes pay more. Figure 7 shows what each parish will pay this year towards both the Curia costs levy (£625000), and the priests pension fund levy (£82000).

Figure 7

If you have any queries please call Jim Whiston, Financial Secretary, at the office on 01642 850505.