Parishioners seek answers to finance questions from one of Scotland's leading Catholic clerics

The church goers, drawn from ten parishes across Edinburgh, say that despite moves by Archbishop Leo Cushley and his fellow trustees at the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh to answer questions around the finances, their responses have raised “further questions and concerns” that are in the public interest.

It comes after Scotland’s charity regulator said it had found “no evidence” of financial mismanagement by the trustees following a complaint last year – a decision that has been welcomed by the archdiocese.

The ongoing dispute centres around mandatory payments into the Aged and Infirm Clergy Fund (AICF), designed to support retired clergy. But it also spans multiple areas of the archdiocese’s finances, including its centralised expenses, and the amount that is being spent on charitable purposes.

In February, some 31 church goers from three Edinburgh parishes signed an open letter asking questions about the finances. But in a sign of the growing consternation around the issue, the latest letter has been signed by 57 parishioners.

They argue the correspondence provided by the trustees “has led to further questions, which we believe are calling for detailed explanations and greater clarity about the management of the archdiocese as a charity in general and the introduction of the AICF in particular”.

The parishioners have argued the levy will leave smaller parishes, many of which are struggling with their finances, at a greater disadvantage. They point to the example of a parish with an offertory income of just £11,000 that would be with only £8,000 once a 20 per cent overall levy is factored in.

The concern not only centres around the ability of parishes to remain viable and carry out their duties in a "post Covid-19 context" and during a cost-of-living crisis, but the impact on ordinary parishioners being asked to help contribute to the costs.

In the wake of the initial open letter, the archdiocese held a series of meetings and prepared a 37-page Q&A document, together with a 33-page response specifically focused on the AICF levy. However, the parishioners say that despite the extensive response from the archdiocese, they are “still concerned about the handling of the imposition” of the levy, adding the answers offered up to date raise further questions.

The parishioners behind the February letter had asked what, if any, specific consideration was given to the individual needs of parishes prior to the terms of the levy being decided. They warned the levy would disproportionately impact smaller parishes and threaten their financial stability.

In its response, the archdiocese said the levy used a progressive or tiered percentage charge on income so that parishes with greater resources contribute a higher proportion of their incomes. It accepted the levy had “exacerbated” the challenging economic positions in both rich and poor parishes, but said the rates were being closely monitored, and would be subject to annual review.

However, the parishioners behind the new letter now say the archdiocese has not provided details of impact assessment work carried out, and have asked if there were visits to poorer parishes, or discussions with them about the financial impact of the levy. They have also asked the archdiocese why it is not doing more to use money from its central unrestricted funds to contribute towards the levy and offer additional assistance to parishes. “The urgency of this letter persists as the levies have already been issued and remain outstanding from several parishes,” they wrote.

The archdiocese referred The Scotsman to a document uploaded to its website responding to the new letter. It said impact assessments were performed using data provided by parishes in annual returns to the archdiocese, along with net asset data. It describes the previous approach of using central funding to pay for the AICF as “selling the family silver” and “the wrong way to fund retirements.”

In their first letter, the parishioners also asked whether the archdiocese was doing enough to fulfil half of the stated purposes in its charitable trust deed, pointing out that while the latest accounts showed it spent £3.72 million on the ‘advancement of religion’ and £1.89m on the ‘advancement of education’ in 2021, the respective charitable expenditure for the ‘relief of poverty’ and the alleviation of sickness and disease stood at just £776,000 and £512,000 respectively.

In its response, the archdiocese said it undertakes all of the charitable purposes, but noted it could be “challenging” to allocate expenditure between those headings. It stressed the sums cited in the accounts were estimates, given the financial impact of some work, such as supporting food banks and the St Vincent de Paul charity, was “not shown” in the accounts.

But the parishioners have said in the “absence of an accurate breakdown” more detail is required about how the charitable spending is divided. They argued even as an estimate, “there appears to be a stark contrast between the monies spent on the first two purposes and the last two”.

The letter also asks multiple questions about the centralised diocesan expenses, which the parishioners say appear to be “significantly higher” compared to other dioceses. The archdiocese’s Q&A document said the parishioners' question compared a few specific expenditure items from a “much bigger picture in the accounts”, and did not take assessment income into account, despite it being lower than other archdioceses.

In November last year, a parish finance council made a complaint to the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) accusing Archbishop Cushley and other trustees of “deliberate financial mismanagement”. But a spokesman for the OSCR said after carrying out inquiries, it found “no evidence” of financial mismanagement by the trustees, adding they had “acted in line with their duties”.

A spokesman for the archdiocese said: “We welcome the OSCR’s finding that the trustees have acted in line with the charity trustee duties. The archdiocese is pleased that OSCR commended their ‘significant effort to communicate both the need for the AICF and to dispel various misunderstandings about the fund’. Supporting our clergy in their retirement remains a priority.”