Pastor's Statement on Stewardship
Essential to the fulfillment of the Church’s mission is the preservation, oversight, use and development of both the physical properties of the Church and its income and other assets (temporal goods). Little Flower Parish takes its stewardship responsibilities very seriously. Proper management of its assets is a critical prerequisite to Little Flower achieving its pastoral mission, its outreach and community support objectives, its educational goals and perhaps most importantly its commitment to the New Evangelization.
Little Flower Parish has established a set of guiding principles that establish the basis for all parish resource decisions, strategic planning, budgeting and goal setting activities.
Those principles are:
- The Pastor is uniquely responsible for acting as the steward for Little Flower’s resources. He is regularly supported in that role by a very active lay Finance Council, professional investment managers and by a Business Manager and staff.
- Parish investment accounts are regularly monitored. Expenditures from such accounts are rigorously reviewed by the Pastor and Finance Council. Our investment goal is to protect and to grow savings while ensuring all necessary parish needs are met.
- Day to Day expenses are also closely monitored. Our goal is to balance routine expenditures with routine offertory and other donations. Savings accounts will not be used for day to day expenses, whenever possible.
- Traditionally, volunteerism has been a vital factor in the Little Flower ministry. A large, robust volunteer group allows the parish to operate extensive services with minimum expense. The parish is blessed by its parishioners’ ongoing donations of treasure, time and talent. It is an integral part of the parish operations and greatly reduces permanent staff costs and encourages parochial participation.
- Community outreach and charitable support require a generous sharing of the parish’s resources. Regular opportunities are sought to offer such support and assistance. Charitable gifts are budgeted annually and the results of poor box donations are routinely distributed to selected charities as well.
- A significant part of the Little Flower Parish is its parochial school. It is a blessing to the parish and a cornerstone of and integral to our parish life. The parish will support the school in its mission, including financially, as circumstances allow and within Archdiocesan guidelines.