SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 5 - N. 20 - 1999 - May - II
From: Koinonia, 1998, N. 4
Fr. Ben Brevoort OFMCap
(Part II)
Solidarity brings about transparency in the financial administration of the Fraternity. Any contribution, given in a family spirit, with great trust, deserves to be received with gratitude, administered diligently and spent responsibly. The financial resources of the Fraternity are owned by all the members of the Fraternity, who have entrusted to the Council the task of deciding the destination of the funds and of managing the economic affairs of the Fraternity (see Const. 50,e). The treasurer has "to render an account of his or her administration to the assembly and to the council of the Fraternity" ( Const. 52,4). The Rule says: ( Art. 11) "Let them be mindful that according to the gospel they are stewards of the goods received", stewards, not owners.
The participation of all brothers and sisters in the financial affairs of the Fraternity is not limited to the one act of handing over their contribution. They participate also in its control and need to be involved and interested in the financial and economic affairs of the Fraternity. To be able to do this, the Council should open its accounts to the Chapter or Assembly of the Fraternity, so that the members can obtain a clear picture of the financial and economic situation of the Fraternity. Solidarity should not be limited to the giving stage. It is also needed in the stages of managing and spending.
Here too solidarity starts inside the Fraternity Council itself. The members of the Council not only have the right to know the exact financial situation of the Fraternity but they even have the duty to know this in order to take adequate financial decisions for the Fraternity. It is for this that the treasurer should give an account of his or her management to the Council.
Solidarity and transparency are impossible without control. Due financial controls are expressions of solidarity to help the treasurer and the Council in the economic management of the Fraternity. They should therefore be regular and habitual, not sporadic and arbitrary. The resulting financial transparency will involve all members of the Fraternity in its economic management, and will render them more inclined to contribute. Financial controls also put the Fraternity in a position to absolve the Council, at the end of its mandate, from all its financial responsibility.
In her report to the General Chapter in 1996, the General Minister, Emanuela De Nunzio SFO, says: "External autonomy requires an independent structure, with its own headquarters and financing, that is capable of putting programs into action without the need to appeal for help from others, organizations or private persons, religious or secular" ( Atti. Rome, 1997, p. 82).
It is true at all levels that the Fraternity will be autonomous only if it can put its own programs in action without need to appeal for help from others. This is true for human resources and for financial resources as well. A local Fraternity will be autonomous and will have its own life if it succeeds in finding, among its own members, persons capable of guiding and animating the Fraternity and also the needed material and financial resources. To be autonomous, the Fraternity should finance itself, at least for its ordinary day to day activities.
Any self-financing needs a budget where expenditure does not exceed income. Deficit financing, where expenditure exceeds income, by definition relies upon outside help, given in the form of loans or gifts. To finance itself, the Fraternity should balance its budget: reduce expenditure, increase income, or both at the same time. This is quite a difficult job, which presupposes a patient and constant formation, above all when the Fraternity was accustomed to rely on others for its own life. Autonomy is precious and is needed for the SFO, because: "Autonomy, with unity and secularity, is a single reality. There cannot exist a totally autonomous SFO if it is not one, nor can there be a really secular SFO if it depends on religious." ( id ., p. 82-83).
Self-financing is not exclusively and not even principally an economic or financial affair. Self-financing is based on the determination of the Fraternity and of its members to be self-reliant, to be autonomous, free to determine its own life. Once this determination is acquired, self-financing becomes possible also in difficult and poor economic situations. Without this "forma mentis", this mind-set, without this formation for autonomy, self-financing will be very difficult and not feasible. It is just wishful thinking to try to arrive at self-financing and the resulting autonomy, either exclusively or primarily by pure financial measures.
Self-financing, like self-reliance and autonomy, is based on the will of the brothers and sisters who form the Fraternity and not on their economic situation. A Fraternity which want to finance itself, will have to start with a program of formation for autonomy, for solidarity and transparency in their relationships, not only in the economic and financial fields, but in the life of the Fraternity. Only thus can the Fraternity be itself and live fully the Gospel in its own secular state of life.
One needs to be creative and to involve the whole Fraternity.
A very common method is to have a free and secret collection, where each member offers a contribution according to his or her own means. This is effective on condition that the members know the needs of the Fraternity, support its programs, are ready to cover the relevant financial expenditures and trust their Council and their Treasurer.
In the absence of these conditions, many Fraternities have established a fixed contribution to be paid periodically. Some of them consider this contribution obligatory, others as a guideline or a minimum which can be supplemented by free gifts. This is the normal way at all higher levels: regional, national and international.
The existence of this method however often indicates a lack of solidarity and co-responsibility for the life of the Fraternity. Whenever a Council needs to insist and impose sanctions, more or less severe, to obtain some result, it needs to ask itself why this approach is necessary. The main reason is almost never economic poverty or insufficient financial means of the members of the Fraternity. At the local level, the main reason will often be a lack of financial transparency of the Council, or a lack of trust by the members in the financial management of the secular members of the Council. At the higher levels, the cause is often a lack of information or insistence on part of the Council at the higher level, and on part of the lower level a poor sense of involvement or responsibility to contribute to the functioning of the Fraternities at the higher levels. It is of course also true that any Fraternity which does not manage to finance itself, will find it very difficult to contribute to the functioning of its immediate higher level.
Other possibilities, above all at the local level, are to start together some money earning activities. Many African Fraternities have a common field, cultivated by the members together, and use its harvest for the Fraternity fund. Other Fraternities have a workshop and organize fairs, or make bricks for sale, wash cars, sell tickets for local soccer matches, guard parked cars, organize bingo parties or song festivals, sell sweets or cakes on the steps of the Church or prepare local take-home dishes, etc.
One needs to help the members to see their financial involvement in a more concrete way. There are members who have designated a tree to be the "SFO tree": all its fruits will go to the SFO. Others have declared a chicken or a goat to be of the SFO. They look after it, sell the eggs or the milk and give this once a month to the Fraternity. Other members before every meal they prepare take a spoonful of rice or tapioca and put this aside. At the end of the month, this is sold and the money given to the Fraternity. I know a medical doctor who puts aside for the SFO the fee he receives from the first patient he treats on the first Monday of the month. Others have earmarked a certain per-thousand of their salary for the SFO.