Bishop Larry Silva is publishing an update dated Sept. 1 to the norms, or rules, governing parish finance councils in this issue of the Hawaii Catholic Herald (see page 7). It contains one revision to the previous norms, last updated Dec. 6, 2018.
Church law requires each parish to have a finance council to advise the pastor in “temporal” matters. According to the norms, members should be “committed to the pastoral mission of the parish” and “reflective of the membership of the parish,” preferably with “knowledge in business administration, accounting or civil law.”
The latest update prohibits “paid employees of the parish or parochial school, of another Catholic parish or parochial school, or of the Diocese of Honolulu” from being members of a parish finance council.
The parish finance council is “essential to the good governance of the parish,” Bishop Silva said.
The norms are being published for the sake of transparency and to give parishioners a deeper insight regarding the operation of a parish.
Bishop Silva first promulgated parish finance council norms on March 13, 2009, with minor revisions made on May 30, 2013, and on Dec. 6, 2018.
