Bishops approve diocesan assessment with no increase

CNS

SAN ANTONIO • The assessment on U.S. dioceses for the work of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington will remain the same for the next calendar year, but the next request is likely to be for an increase
.
At their spring meeting in San Antonio June 18, the bishops in a 135-2 vote approved a recommendation from their Committee on Budget and Finance to keep the 2010 assessment on dioceses to fund the work of the USCCB at the 2009 level of just over $10 million. The vote was open only to bishops who head dioceses.

But the chairman of the committee warned that he would probably be asking for an increase for 2011 when that assessment comes up at the bishops’ November meeting in Baltimore.

The assessments are calculated for each diocese based on a formula that includes offertory income, registered households and contributions to three national collections.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., committee chairman, noted in his report to the bishops that the 2008 assessment, which was just a few hundred dollars more than in 2009, was a 16 percent reduction from the 2007 assessment, before a major reorganization of the work and structure of the USCCB. That year the assessment was nearly $12 million.
Although the total collected from dioceses in 2007 to support the work of the USCCB was reduced 16 percent, not every diocese saw a 16 percent drop.

At a press conference after the meeting, Archbishop Kurtz said an increase is likely to be on the bishops’ fall agenda because “the need is great.”

His report to the bishops noted that there had been no increase in the assessment in six of the past seven years and that all conference salaries were frozen this year.

Archbishop Kurtz told reporters he’s optimistic that the economy will see more improvement in the nearly two years before an increased assessment would take effect.