Voice of the Faithful has completed its third annual study of U.S. Catholic dioceses’ online financial transparency. Among the study’s findings are that:
- 65% of U.S. dioceses have exhibited a commitment to financial transparency by sharing audited financial reports on their websites;
- The percentage of U.S. dioceses posting audited financial reports has increased from 56% in 2017 to 61% in 2018 to 65% in 2019;
- 8% of the dioceses provided only unaudited reports in 2019, and the remaining 27% posted no financial information at all;
- The average diocesan transparency score dropped slightly in 2019 due to tighter scoring criteria, but some dioceses achieved dramatic improvement; and
- Other dioceses have stopped posting audited reports, causing their scores to drop sharply.
The study concluded that, although a majority of dioceses have made a commitment to financial transparency, a sizable minority share little or no verifiable financial information with their members. The average overall score achieved by all 177 dioceses comprising the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Voice of the Faithful’s 2019 report was 65.25%.
Five dioceses received perfect scores of 100%:
- Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska;
- Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina;
- Diocese of Erie. Pennsylvania;
- Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and
- Diocese of Rochester, New York.
Click here for VOTF’s “Measuring and Ranking
Diocesan Online Financial Transparency: 2019” …
Voice of the Faithful ® 