TOPIC IV, Module 3

governance structures and the canon law of temporal goods,

topic for administration of temporal goods, module three.

Diocesan administration of temporal goods. The diocese and Finance Council.

We turn down this module in the administration of temporal goods in module three,

we want to turn to finance councils and particularly the diocesan Finance council,

but we'll look at other councils as well.

So in this module we wanted,

we want to look at the notion the composition

and the functions of the diocese and Finance council.

And then we want to look at some finance councils for other juristic persons,

such as the parish Finance council.

What is the Diocese and Finance Council?

A council of persons established to assist the diocese and bishops

in the administration of the temporal goods of the diocese,

according to the duties entrusted to it by canon law.

Especially book five of the code.

So pretty simple, the definition is pretty standard here,

that you have a council of persons that's established to assist the diocesan bishop

in his administration of the temporal goods.

One thing to look at to notice immediately is that the

diocese and Finance Council does not administer the temporal goods.

They are not the administrator. Even in a little bit,

the diocese,

and bishop is the administrator of the financial

of the temporal goods of the juristic person.

The public jury person of the diocese.

The diocese and Finance Council is not a co administrator or something like that,

and that should be known.

That should be understood,

they assist the diocese and Bishop in his

administration of the temporal goods of the diocese.

How do they do it according to the duties that Canon Law

is going to give to it and book five of the code

Composition. This comes from Canon 4 92.

What makes up the Finance Council of the Diocese?

Well, every diocese is required to have a finance council.

So this is kind of a bedrock principle.

If you have a diocese, you must have a finance council,

the Finance council has to be comprised of

at least three members of the christian faithful.

In other words, they have to be a catholic.

Now, do they need to be of the diocese?

It doesn't explicitly say that,

but presumably so because it is appropriate when it says christian faithful there.

Yes, that's a broad term,

but it seems to be leaning towards very much saying

that this is also a christian faithful of the diocese.

So although the terminology is not explicit there,

it's understood that the members of the Finance council

are part of the diocese,

they should be truly expert in financial affairs and Civil law.

So in other words, we don't want just friends of the bishop on,

there are people who are just nice people, holy people to be on the Finance Council,

there has to be an expertise there that they're bringing to the council,

whether in financial matters and Civil Law and property matters,

some sort of expertise that they can bring to the table.

They have to be outstanding in integrity.

We don't want shady characters here.

We don't want people who are marred in reputation by scandal,

particularly financial scandals and things like that.

The bishop appoints them

and the bishop appoints them for a five year term

renewable and notice the terms here are specified in cannonball.

It should be a five year term. It can be renewable.

They cannot be related to the diocese and bishop.

They cannot be related to him by blood or by marriage.

So for example,

his sister cannot serve on the diocese and Finance

council nor can his his brother in law,

his sister's husband that's by marriage,

cannot serve on the diocesan finance council.

This goes up to the fourth degree. The fourth degree. What is the fourth degree.

By canonical count counting the fourth degree is first cousins or closer.

So first cousins of the bishop,

either by blood or by marriage cannot serve on the diocese.

And Finance council's his aunts, his uncles, his nephews, his nieces,

those are all third degrees.

Those cannot serve on the diocese and finance council either.

So up to first cousins and including his parents.

Uh His parents can't, his aunts, his uncles, his his brothers, sisters,

their spouses and then his his nephews and

nieces all cannot serve on the Finance council.

The diocesan bishop or his delegate

presides over the finance council. That's pretty straightforward

functions of the diocesan Finance council.

What does the diocesan Finance council do?

The main

Charges for the main duties are listed in 493. They prepare an annual budget

of both the income and expenditures of the diocese.

That annual budget is the responsibility of the diocese and Finance Council.

Now, of course,

they work in conjunction with the Finance Officer who would have those,

those figures and things like that.

But ultimately, is the diocese and Finance Council

that's required to prepare that annual budget,

both of the income and of the expenditures that are that are there?

They examine the finance officers end of the year report.

So, the Finance Officer, which we'll see in a later module,

one of his duties or her duties is to have an end of the year report.

And so the Finance Council is the one that needs to scrutinize that and

needs to go through that to make sure that everything is in order.

They examine reports regarding bona ecclesiastical from administrators of

juristic persons subject to the diocese and bishop.

Remember that,

that public juridical persons within the diocese under

the jurisdiction of the diocese and Bishop,

they have to give a report of their temporal goods to the diocese and bishop

that report that comes in.

The Finance Council actually has the duty to examine those

reports to make sure that those reports are in order.

I can tell you in many dioceses, this is not being done.

Uh and something to be fixed because it's a clear charge from the

code of canon law for the Finance Council as one of their duties.

One of their bedrock duties is these yearly reports that come in

from from these public juristic persons regarding their temporal goods.

The bishop may not know how to look at these very closely.

The Finance Council should have the expertise to be able to look at these,

examine these and and scrutinize those to make sure that everything is proper.

They then give consultation and consent to the diocese and

Bishop for certain acts as required by Canon law.

And we already see this in the previous module,

we talked about those acts of ordinary administration of greater importance,

which requires consultation from the Finance Council and the college consult Urz,

that's one of their functions.

That's one of their duties.

And then for acts of extraordinary administration that they have

to give their consent for the bishop to act.

That too is one of their duties that's clearly laid out by canon law.

No,

the statutes, in other words, the particular law,

the Finance Council really really should have statutes.

Uh And if there is not statutes, I think good ecclesia administration,

Good diocese administration would get on that immediately because the Finance

Council really needs to have statutes laying out these principles.

And yes, incorporating the canonical things that can't contradict.

So it's good to put in there, that the terms are five years renewable,

but then also make a determination as to how

many times renew Can you renew it for once,

twice, three times.

The code doesn't say just as renewable.

So the particular law of the diocese can cut that off renewable ones.

So a total of 10 years renewable twice a total of 15 years,

which I think is getting to be a bit much or

or that it can limit that a little bit renewable once,

but then you have to take X number of years

off before you can come back on something like that.

The statutes really should lay those types of things out.

It should include all the canonical requirements and duties that are there.

It should be,

it should include requirements necessary for being appointed a member.

Of course, the diocesan bishop can have extra requirements for being on,

on the Finance Council for example,

uh somebody has to have the expertise and things like that to be on the council.

But the bishop could come up with a particular law just for that diocese that says,

you have to have been a member of the diocese

for at least five years before you can serve on.

That's perfectly fine too. So long as it's promulgated in the statutes.

It should include language regarding confidentiality, which is a huge, huge,

hugely important thing because you're dealing with

some very sensitive information from the diocese.

It should include other things, such as the number of members,

the quorum frequency of meetings, manner of proceedings, conflicts of interest.

All those things should be in there.

Again,

be careful not to assume that secular manner of proceedings

and rules automatically apply to the diocesan Finance council.

We are talking under canon law, we are not talking

civil.

So a lot of times people come on councils like this because they've served on

secular boards and corporate boards and things like

that and they bring that baggage in.

So be very,

very careful because diocese and Finance Council's function

under canon law and function under the statutes

automatically american law concerning boards and things like that

don't automatically come in and there can be some

misunderstanding there. If it's not clarified,

I would highly suggest that those who are coming

on Finance council's particularly for the first time that there

would be some sort of training and in service that's

done just so that the members understand their roles,

understand the expectations and understand the differences between

the diocese and Finance council and say,

a finance council at a corporation or a corporate board or something like that.

So that they don't mix those up. We can avoid a lot of misunderstandings.

Also, that confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements be signed.

Not only should there be language,

I think in there about confidentiality and nondisclosure,

I think they should actually sign some sort of document pledging, not to not,

not to uh review that, that appropriate,

review information that's sensitive or confidential.

The Finance Council's for other juristic persons.

Then Kenan, 1280, Ken, 1280 is very clear.

Each Jared IQ person,

whether it's a public charity person

or a private charity person

is to have its own finance council

or at least two financial counselors.

We had mentioned this a little bit in an earlier module, but I want to,

I want to underscore it again,

if something is established

as a public juristic person or a private juristic person,

if you are a juristic person, you must have your own finance council

or at least

to financial financial counselors.

So for a diocese,

you can't just have to financial counselors because the other

cannon kicks in and requires the diocese and finance council

for parishes,

for other institutes or for any public genetic person

or private juridical person.

There must be

a finance council. And if that's not possible, then there needs to be

at least two financial counselors that are officially appointed.

Their principal duty is to assist the administrator.

The administrator of the juridical person

needs to fulfill his or her function with regards to temporal goods.

Once again, notice what it does not say,

the Finance council is not the one administering

the temporal goods of the public or private. You're a good person.

They are not a co administrator.

They don't have that type of shared jurisdiction and that, that, that,

that type of stuff.

They assist the administrator. They don't assist the legal representative.

They don't assist the superior. It's the administrator that they are assisting.

So this is, for example,

in a parish context and we'll talk about parrish finance council here in a second,

but in a parish context, what is the role of the Finance council?

They are not co administrator,

they are not the board of the parish,

they are not the co owners in a sense,

they are assisting

the administrator.

The pastor is still the administrator, He is fully and solely the Administrator.

The Finance council assists in that.

The duties what they do should be laid out in the statutes and of course,

that can't contradict universal law and it should lay out the duties very clearly

the Finance council

and its duties particularly laying out in the statutes or inaction

cannot usurp the duty cannot usurp the role of the administrator.

The administrator is still the administrator and the only administrator,

the finance council assists in that they are not co administrator.

Finally,

what I'd like to do is to have just a very brief glance at parish finance council,

we don't have time to go more fully and deeply into these.

But just generally speaking,

parish finance council, because the parish is a public juridical person.

The code of Canon 537 requires each parish is required to have

a finance council and that goes in with the previous canon,

that requires all juridical persons to have finance council.

So here, same thing.

And if not, I'm sorry, they cannot just have to financial counselors.

So a parish does not have the option of just having the two financial counselors.

A parish must have a finance council,

the diocese and bishop cannot dispense from this requirement.

So if the parish

is small, you still have to have a finance council put together,

you can't just have two counselors and the bishop,

the bishop can't dispense from that.

Of course, the diocese needs to come out with particular law on how that's composed,

how that's done, but that it is done

is important.

We'll try to examine some of this in bits and pieces in other topics,

but for right now,

just know that parish parishes are required to have Finance

council's not just two counselors and they assist the pastor.

They do not serve as co administrators or share

in any sort of decision making like that.

But that parish has to have its own finance council.

It cannot be combined with another parish, its own finance council.

TOPIC IV, Module 3

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