COVID-19: An Opportunity for the Church to View Itself With Fresh Eyes

There is no question that the COVID-19 pandemic has unsettled nearly every element of society, including our Catholic parishes. Typical patterns that parishioners have come to rely on have been disrupted. Parishes and dioceses have been forced to reexamine time-honored practices with fresh eyes. We are told that we are entering a new normal. Some of these emerging trends will eventually prove to be undesirable, but many will be beneficial, opening the opportunity for new and creative possibilities.

One obvious impact is the way in which the parish is managed. Let’s be clear, the church is not a business. But it does have a stewardship responsibility to use its resources as effectively as possible. Effective church management is always important, but never more so than in this time of uncertainty affecting society as a whole.

This essay considers three church management policies that were well overdue and in some cases brought to action only because the pandemic forced leaders’ hands. The three are finances, reconfiguring organizational structures, and the use of technology. Things will never be the same in these three areas.

Church Finances

Perhaps the most obvious long-term effect will be in the way in which parishes finance their operations. Unlike many other Christian churches, which have an expectation that their members will make a financial commitment to their church by tithing or pledging, most Catholic parishes rely on parishioners’ voluntary contributions to the collection plate each weekend.

Revenue from these collections can be hit or miss. My research shows that 37 percent of regular Mass-attending Catholics base their weekly contributions on how much is in their checkbook that weekend. If there is more, they contribute more; if there is less, they contribute less. And most tellingly, parishioners who fail to contribute on those weekends when they are absent from Mass are unlikely to make it up.

This last point has been critical during the pandemic as first, parishes in most states were not allowed to hold public services, and then later Mass attendance was severely limited by law. One researcher estimated that during the shutdown parishes were only receiving 42 percent of their normal weekend collection.²

Although Catholics do not typically tithe or pledge, some have found it convenient to contribute electronically through automatic transfers from their bank account to the parish’s account. Although such donations are not officially referred to as a pledge, the fact that parishioners designate a certain amount to be transferred (usually at the beginning of each month) in effect makes it a pledge. The transfers occur whether or not the parishioner is able to attend Mass every weekend. Unfortunately, not as many Catholics as we might wish take advantage of this opportunity to make a financial commitment this way.

One outcome of the pandemic and its decrease in both Mass attendance and in weekly collections has been a greater emphasis on convincing parishioners to commit to electronic transfers of funds. According to a survey of U.S. bishops conducted by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) 87 percent of the diocesan ordinaries responding indicated that they had begun actively encouraging parishioners to contribute electronically.³

But parishes are not the only ones to suffer financially from the pandemic. The majority of dioceses receive most of their revenue from an assessment on parish collections, generally around 10 percent. As parish collection revenue decreased as a result of the pandemic, diocesan revenues decreased as well.

One certain outcome of the pandemic is to shine a light on the limitations of financing parish activities by voluntary weekly collections and to initiate a push toward encouraging parishioners to make a financial commitment through such activities as electronic contributions. We might even begin to refer to them as “pledges.” The church can’t risk another situation like this where revenues take a drastic hit because of its reliance on voluntary contributions from parishioners who are unable to attend Mass.

A second outcome is to impress upon both parishes and dioceses the necessity of building...