Stewardship Tip July 2008

How can I – and why should I – continue to give when I’m so angry with my pastor/parish/bishop/Church?  Ideally, a good steward gives in gratitude for God’s blessings and trusts the recipient of the gift – the parish or the charity – to exercise good stewardship, too.  We give our offerings “without strings,” knowing that the God to whom we are accountable will also require accountability of those who receive what is offered.  But when we are angry or estranged, when the church or its leadership at any level has misused our gifts or let us down, it can be harder to give with a generous, open heart.  Unfortunately, however, if we withhold our financial support because we are angry with a politically outspoken pastor, for example, we will unintentionally hurt all the people and ministries supported by the parish and all our fellow parishioners at Mass as well, since they also use the lights and air-conditioning and wine and hosts and support staff our weekly offerings help pay for.  And we hurt ourselves, spiritually, too.  So what are we supposed to do when the church we love doesn’t seem to be exercising good stewardship?  It’s a difficult question without an obvious answer…

One imperfect answer may be to give for awhile to a different level of the church; give to the diocesan appeal if you can’t bring yourself to give to the parish at the moment.  Chances are, the diocesan goal is mandatory, in whole or in part, and giving to the diocesan appeal will help the people and causes directly served by the appeal and will help your parish indirectly, too.  And the converse is also true.  If for whatever reason, you feel you cannot support your bishop at this time, give generously (an additional amount at least equal to what you would ordinarily pledge to the bishop’s appeal) to your parish, instead.  Or talk with your parish business manager about the possibility of directing your gift to a particular ministry or service in the parish (for the building fund or religious education or youth ministry or the parish outreach ministries, for example), rather than to the general fund.  That results in a donation with some “strings” attached and is not the unconditional giving that we aspire to as good stewards, but it hurts the parish – and the donor – far less that withholding it altogether.  Another option might be to set aside the amount you would ordinarily give with the intent of giving it eventually – to the parish or the diocese – when whatever has caused the estrangement has been resolved.  Or perhaps you might choose to give to Catholic Relief Services or another reputable charitable agency that can be trusted to use your donation wisely and well.  This option allows a conscientious steward to continue to give back in gratitude to the Lord, but because it re-directs the gift away from the parish it has the unfortunate (and often unintentional) side-effect of reducing the parish’s ability to serve other parishioners and fulfill its mission.

There are no perfect answers.  But it’s far better stewardship to struggle with the questions and to ask God to help us to find generous-hearted solutions than to give up giving altogether!