“Use the Available Resources as an Opportunity to Manage the Institutions” Says Bishop Hiiboro

“Use the Available Resources as an Opportunity to Manage the Institutions” Says Bishop Hiiboro

By Baraka John

At the end of the two-day training on internal financial management, to strengthen the finances of the diocese, bishop Eduardo has appealed to all finance managers and heads of institutions to use the available resources as an opportunity to manage their institutions.

During his closing remarks, Bishop Hiiboro called on the participants to identify potential resources within their parishes and institutions to utilize them for income-generating activities.

He further told the participants to build their strength on local resource mobilization to sustain their parishes and institutions.

The training was organized by the office of the bishop with the aim to build the capacity of finance officers and heads of institutions in different catholic organizations including the parishes, on how to embark on local resource mobilization and enhance the financial stability of the diocese. 

The initiative is expected to see the diocese have a long-term commitment to develop mindsets and be holistically tuned to the local fundraising framework.

SPEECH OF BISHOP EDUARDO

The finance workshop gets down to business for future and current parish leaders

Due to a variety of factors, the organizational structure of our Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio is becoming more complex. It is both unfair and unwise to place a greater administrative burden on our Priests, the vast majority of whom are neither interested in nor equipped to take on a greater administrative burden nor do they have the time.

The diocesan, parish, and Institution modes of the future will rely heavily on a professionally trained business manager assisted by a professionally trained and dedicated finance council.

No one I know who wants to become a priest says they want to run a business, but that's what a parish often is.

True or false. While no church is entirely satisfied with the amount that their members contribute, Catholics contribute to their parish at about the same rate as Protestants.

There are some parishes in this country where the same person, one person, counts the collection, the same person deposits the collection, and the same person writes all the checks and transactions of the same. That's a temptation, along with every one of those steps. So, what you want to do is have segmentation. Break them up.

One of the goals of this workshop is to educate the laity. We are glad to have clergy and religious as well, but our real goal is to relieve them of the burden of temporal work.

People don't see the church as being relevant in their lives, And the Catholic church has really been the last to the science of Finance works.

When you engage a lot of people, it gets messy, but you have to be okay with some of that to allow for the greater good. I think that is a style that the upcoming leaders in our church will probably adapt to better than many of our current priests. it's so great to see them since they are of a different generation.

After this workshop, we shall soon arrange for training work for all our Accountants in our parishes and institutions.

This is part of the decisions of our first Diocesan Synod which recommended so much growth and investment in all we do.

 Diocesan, Institutions, and Parish Accountability and Transparency Finally we looked as well at, the issue of diocesan, parish, and Institution accountability and transparency will take on greater importance in the parish of the future. To meet these challenges, the following are recommended

• Parishioners should be given the opportunity to view and comment on the parish budget while it is still in its draft form and before it is finalized, with the understanding that the final say belongs to the priests.
• Routine Diocesan, parish, and Institutions financial statements, such as a comparison between budgeted and actual expenditures and revenues, should be made available to all parishioners on a regular, preferably quarterly, basis.

We move gradually but sure