Parish Finances from 2014 to 2021

Generally speaking, since the last Quinquennial Report, our financial situation has improved, especially with the increasing creation of awareness in the minds of many Christians to assume their duties and responsibilities in the Church. Following the recommendation of St. John Paul in the Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in Africa, that each Christian community should “be organized so that, as far as possible, it can provide for its own needs” (Ecclesia in Africa, n. 104), there is a drive through the organization of the Small Christian Communities to make our Parishes more and more financially self-reliant. In fact, many more of them have become self-reliant within the last five years or so.

One of the means which the Archdiocese embarked on towards making itself financially self-reliant is through the building of the All Saints Business Centre in All Saints Parish, Bayelle. This was a move by which sheds were built and leased out to businessmen, who, in turn, pay rents to the Archdiocese. So far, the Archdiocese has not started reaping the benefits of this endeavour.

On the other hand, the expenditures are equally increasing. Therefore, our Archdiocese is far from becoming self-reliant. This is a major obstacle to the work of evangelization. The growing financial crisis, the need to target new areas of primary evangelization, transportation and taking care of pastoral agents in terms of accommodation, health and feeding, the need to build new presbyteries, schools, train catechists, and so on, still remain a major difficulty. The poor population that forms the majority of Christians cannot, in effect, raise enough finances to meet these needs.