The Catholic Church in France is joining banks and carmakers in asking for funds and considering job cuts to weather the global economic crisis.Michel Dubost, a 66-year-old bishop, posted a video on his dioceses Web site, calling for emergency donations and warning that a 1 million euro ($1.26 million) deficit at his Paris suburb church may force him to fire some workers.
"I believe in peoples generosity when they are aware of what's going on," Dubost said in a phone interview. "When you have no more reserves and the biggest expense is staffing, if we have to cut back on something, it will be on staffing. I am hopeful it won't result in that."
While Catholicism remains France's largest religion, the practice is declining, making it a minority faith among the young and leaving several churches strapped for cash. The impact on the church's finances may worsen as the euro region's second-largest economy teeters on the brink of a recession, destroying jobs and putting additional pressure on household budgets.
The French government has earmarked up to 360 billion euros to bolster financial institutions. On Friday, President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a stimulus plan of more than 20 billion euros in government spending and tax cuts to help the auto and other industries.
The number of job seekers climbed in October by the most in 15 years as companies were hurt by falling demand.
On the video, titled "A Church on the Verge of a Precipice," which can be seen on YouTube and Dailymotion, the bishop says the diocese is in serious deficit as it faces 4.5 million euros in payroll expenses.
"You and I alike are feeling the crisis, we are paid around the minimum wage and we see how much things cost," he said while sitting in front of the camera. "We're in such difficulty that I wonder how we are going to pay."
Dubost's church has 70 full-time priests, 70 others who are retired or partly paid by other institutions and 45 employees handling administrative or spiritual tasks, such as catechism.
The financial crisis has exacerbated difficulties stemming from falling church attendance.
A poll of 4,794 adults in April 2007, for Patrimoine magazine by TNS-Sofres, showed that 59 percent of French people describe themselves as Catholic, 3 percent Muslim, 2 percent Protestant, and 1 percent Jewish. Twenty-nine percent said they had no religion.
The poll showed that only 15 percent of Catholics regularly attend services, compared with 34 percent for Protestants, 32 percent for Muslims and 25 percent for Jews. Among people under 35, 44 percent claim to be Catholic.
Total costs at the diocese, including maintenance of churches built after 1905, is 6 million euros a year, Dubost said. New rules including one requiring priests to subscribe to health-care insurance and rising transport costs have added to expenses, he said.
About 40 percent of the dioceses revenue comes from deductible yearly payments by catholic worshipers, which have reached 3.3 million euros so far. Donations during mass or for events such as weddings, which make up the rest, have been falling, the bishop said in the interview.
Mass and ceremony donations dropped 17 percent in October, a month that's traditionally low. Dubost said he's making the call to avert a similar drop in December, one of the years two best months.
He said he knew he had to take his plea to the Web.
"What we write is less and less read," he said. "We decided to make a video. That's how you communicate these days."
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(Source: MT)