By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, May 17, 2020: Most priests of Faridabad diocese in northern India have decided to give up one month salary as the nationwide lockdown has dried up church income.
On May 17, the head of the Syro-Malabar diocese, Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara announced 50 percent reduction in the annual fees from parishes to the diocesan curia.
These developments took place on the say India extended the lockdown for the fourth time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed the lockdown from the midnight of March 24 to contain the coronavirus. It will now end on May 31. Initially, it was for 21 days, then it was extended to May 3 and then to May 17.
The lockdown has dried up Sunday collections and donations as churches are closed for public worship, says a press release from the public relations officer of the diocese that covers the national capital, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Punjab and parts of Uttar Pradesh.
The PRO, Father Ginto Tom, says some parishes now struggle to meet expenses, including the monthly salary of their priests.
“In this context, the clergy of the Faridabad diocese has come up with a gesture of magnanimity and generosity to give up one month salary to alleviate the burden of the parish and community,” the PRO said.
Father Tom points out that the priests’ acceptance of “salary challenge” and diocesan decision to halve the parish contribution come at a time when some other dioceses have called for greater contributions and collections from their people.
The “gesture of solidarity of these priests should be appreciated,” he adds.
The “salary challenge” was first made by the federal government on April 30 to raise funds for Covid-19 resistance activities.
The revenue department asked its officers to donate one day’s salary every month for full fiscal year until March 2021 to assist the government in its battle against Covid-19.
On May 14, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind decided to forego 30 percent of his salary for the whole year apart from directing officials to adopt other austerity measures.
The president’s domestic tours will be substantially reduced, guest lists as well as food menu at official ceremonies will be cut and plans to purchase a new Presidential Limousine have been deferred, said a press note from Rashtrapati Bhavan.
In Faridabad diocese, Archbishop Bharanikulangara hailed his priests’ decision as “a praiseworthy move” and it was a church-level salary challenge.
“When my parishes struggle to survive, and some not having sufficient amount to pay even the salaries, the diocesan leadership should understand that and offered a considerable reduction of 50 percent in the annual fees from the parishes.”
Father Tom says the diocesan leadership has designed a program to support those priests who cannot join the “salary challenge” because of personal circumstances.
P J Thomas, secretary of the diocesan pastoral council, termed as “commendable and remarkable” the priests’ decision “to respond positively to the financial difficulties of the parish” they serve.
According to the lay leader, the diocesan leadership “is responding with a sense of reality during the lockdown.”
Father Tom says all 32 parishes and 12 mission stations under Faridabad are Catholics manage with the “generous donations” of their members, who are all migrants from Kerala, a southern Indian state. “Since there are no Sunday collections, many parishes are in a miserable stage even for essential expenses,” he adds.
The diocese is served by 38 diocesan and 24 religious priests.
The priest also points out that the parishes in Kerala manage with rent from buildings, and income from land institutions.
This short write-up is with reference to the report titled “Priests accept salary challenge, give up monthly allowance” in Matters India on 18 May 2020. First of all, I want to register my appreciation of the generous gesture of the priests of Faridabad diocese.
However, I wish to point out certain confusion, contradiction and raise some questions on the report.
The title uses two important words – salary and allowance. These two words come up in many places in the report. The first question I wish to raise is: Does a priest gets a salary or allowance? Both the words mean two different things. The dictionary meanings are given below:
“Salary” is a fixed regular payment, typically paid on a monthly basis but often expressed as an annual sum, made by an employer to an employee, especially a professional or white-collar worker. Another meaning is: Salary is a fixed amount of money paid to an employee by an employer in return for work performed.
“Allowance” is a sum of money paid regularly to a person to meet his/her needs or expense.
When the meanings of these two words are entirely different, then, why both these words are used for the money that the priest gets every month from his diocese/congregation? Why is this confusion?
If salary is the correct term, then, who is the employer – Bishop? or Provincial? In that case, is there an “employment contract” between the employer and the employee? Does a diocese or province follow the Human Resource Policy/Manual that is applicable to all the priests?
As far as my limited understanding and experience go, what every priest receives is an “allowance”. This has been also called Viaticum, Table Allowance and Monthly Allowance etc. The examples of the revenue department officials contributing one-day salary and 30 percent salary-contribution by the President of India are mentioned in this report. Their salaries are huge and they can afford to contribute. Comparing their ‘salary contribution’ with the ‘allowance contribution’ of the priests does not make any sense.
The report begins with the sentence: “Most priests of Faridabad diocese in northern India have decided to give up one-month salary as the nationwide lockdown has dried up church income”. In another place it is mentioned: “the clergy of the Faridabad diocese has come up with a gesture of magnanimity and generosity to give up one-month salary to alleviate the burden of the parish and community.”
As per the first sentence, this gesture of the priests seems to be an “optional”. Majority has opted for this and a minority has not opted. As per the second sentence, it looks all priests have taken a “unanimous decision” in this regard. Did the diocese make it a policy that the priests have to forego their monthly allowance?
In the whole report, nowhere the allowance amount is mentioned. Why did the PRO not make it public the exact amount of money that every priest receives? In fact, the bishop or the PRO could have been transparent in mentioning the exact amount of money that a priest receives from the diocese as:
1) Monthly allowance
2) Mass stipend
3) Travel allowance
4) Medical allowance etc.
They should have then calculated the “total amount” that all the priests have decided to contribute. There is no mention about how this money will be used, for whom, where and when. If these details were there, then, it would have given a clear picture to the public.
In the beginning of the report it is mentioned: “the head of the Syro-Malabar diocese, Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara announced 50 percent reduction in the annual fees from parishes to the diocesan curia”. What is this “annual fees”? Is there a fixed amount or fee for a parish? How does a parish priest collect and contribute to the diocesan curia? Most lay people are ignorant about it.
The report also gives an impression that the diocese depends on the “migrant people from Kerala” (the parishioners) who happen to support the parishes with their ‘generous donations’. Why is this dependency on the lay people? Is there no “emergency fund or reserve fund” in the diocese that could be used at the time of crisis? Are there no “sustainability measures” initiated in the diocese?
Another missing point is the “allowance of the bishop”. Did he come forward to forego his allowance? The bishop or PRO could have mentioned about the exact amount that a bishop gets as a monthly allowance with break-ups.
Ultimately, the report gives an ‘abstract information or a sensational news’. Is it for publicity? To me it looks so. The report does not utter a word about the ‘exact amount of money’. In my write-up published in Matters India on 16 May, 2020 I have pointed out the ‘lack of transparency’ among the clergy on money matters.
If Faridabad diocese had made a specific mention about the details of money (receipts, income, expenses, deficit etc.), then, it could have been a step towards transparency. Hope this diocese and many other dioceses will pursue this matter and become more transparent. Ultimately transparency is the need of the hour.
ML Satyan, Bengaluru
priest,s salary may be a token money to maintain simple personal needs…and the word salary,in my personal opinion is malicious as I came to learn from this article that priest without family have salary. Actually it should be termed ‘allowance’ and I saw and came to know catholic priests generously helps poor students and helpless poors from parish randomly without notice.
certainly it’s from their personal allowances.
It is the duty of the parishioners to maintain the church and the parish priest. As the Sunday collection is meant for this purpose, it could not be collected on account of no service at the church on Sundays,. So the parishioners should contribute their share through some means – say by bank transfer or such methods. The salary reduction by priests is nothing sizeable compared to the maintenance expenditure
appreciate the priests for their sacrifice