New corporation will better safeguard assets of the diocese canonically, legally
By Christine Lucheon
The Diocese of Knoxville has taken a key step in strengthening financial stewardship and aligning parish and diocesan assets more in accord with Church canon law.
A new corporation called East Tennessee Catholic Community Investment and Loan Inc. (ETCCIL) will oversee and be responsible for the diocese’s long-standing Deposit and Loan Fund.
Since the founding of the diocese in 1988, the Deposit and Loan Fund has served as a valuable resource for parishes by providing a secure place to deposit funds while offering access to loans at favorable interest rates. The fund has allowed parishes to earn interest on deposits while supporting the growth and development of Catholic communities throughout East Tennessee.
Over the past year, Bishop Mark Beckman, other diocesan officials, and a legal team have worked to establish ETCCIL as a separate corporation for both civil and canonical purposes.
The new structure provides additional protection for assets that belong to individual parishes while enhancing transparency and accountability through an independent governing board of trustees.
It better reflects the Church’s understanding in the Code of Canon Law of the legitimate principles of subsidiarity and the status of parishes and other entities as having their own proper autonomy with regard to their own resources. These resources are still governed by the proper law of the Church both universally and in the diocese.
“For understandable reasons, when the diocese was created in 1988, we tried our best to keep things simple in accounting for funds and assets. We had fewer parishes and fewer assets and funds to manage, and so, like any young family, we simply pooled all our resources together with good faith but without the formal legal distinctions that take time and effort to create,” said Father David Carter, rector of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga.
As a canon lawyer for the Diocese of Knoxville, Father Carter was involved in creating the newly incorporated entity. He also is a Judicial Vicar and vice chancellor for canonical affairs.
“However, as the diocese has grown and parishes and other institutions have come into existence to serve the many needs of the faithful, the wisdom of the Church’s established law on the administration of goods has given us a sound guide on how better to understand, manage, and account for the goods entrusted to the care of individual parishes and other institutions of the diocese,” Father Carter continued. “We recognize that parishes are canonically and civilly separate legal entities in themselves, even if they are legitimately subordinate to the bishop. As such, they have a right to own their property and assets in their own name. This new corporation is a direct response to the desire to continue to provide clarity and accountability of these goods with all the formal oversight we have enjoyed from the beginning while structuring these assets to reflect proper ownership in conformity with the Church’s established law on the matter.”
In further explaining the role of ETCCIL in managing the diocese’s assets, Father Carter said, “The basic question is ‘who owns what?’ As an example, does St. Stephen Parish in Chattanooga own the money in its deposit account or does the diocese own it? We have always respected the fact that the money on deposit from St. Stephen belonged to that parish, but on paper, from a legal point of view, it appeared as if the diocese owns it. By implementing the new ETCCIL Inc., we provide clarity by bringing the legal reality into conformity with our own internal understanding of how the Church is structured.”
The newly formed board of trustees, composed of experienced and qualified members of the Catholic community, deans, and account holders, has been charged with developing different deposit and loan products as well as policies and procedures for the various products, reviewing interest-rate structures for deposits and loans, and evaluating future investment opportunities.
As part of this work, the board will explore prudent long-term investment strategies that may provide enhanced returns for participating entities.
While the new corporation begins its work, parish deposit and loan programs will continue to operate as they do today. Most existing deposit interest-rate structures are expected to remain unchanged for the next six months while the board develops its deposit-account structure and loan products as well as policies and long-term plans.
The Diocese of Knoxville believes this new structure will strengthen stewardship, improve transparency, and position the fund to better serve parishes and ministries for generations to come.
From a parish operational perspective, the transition of the Deposit and Loan Fund to the East Tennessee Catholic Community Investment and Loan Inc. has been relatively seamless. Banking operations have remained unchanged for the parishes, resulting in little to no impact on day-to-day parish office procedures. From an operational standpoint, most processes have continued as they did prior to the transition.
Father Charlie Donahue, CSP, is one of four priests in the diocese on the ETCCIL board of trustees. The priests serving on the board are deans of the four deaneries—Chattanooga, Smoky Mountain, Cumberland Mountain, and Five Rivers.
“Because I am a Paulist Father and since I was ordained a priest, I have served in five different dioceses as a pastor. I have been involved in these dioceses. Each one has tried to find the right way to do what we are doing right now,” Father Donahue said. “This structure allows for there to be more accountability, more transparency, and an orderly way of doing the finances in such a way where there is a responsibility structure as opposed to there’s only a bishop.”
Father Donahue said each of the dioceses in which he has served has a finance structure like ETCCIL.
“Most of the dioceses, especially the larger ones, realized very quickly what monies would be at risk around different situations,” he said. “Everything we have is donated from someone’s good will. We owe it to the donors to be really precise around where money goes and what it goes to. So, the accountability structure is great.”
The pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Knoxville emphasized that ETCCIL is being led by both diocesan laypeople and Catholic clergy.
“There are lay leaders who happen to be successful business leaders in the community who are known and trusted for their financial acumen and their big-heartedness. The trustees of this organization are this group,” Father Donahue said.
Father Donahue pointed out that ETCCIL will give priests and pastors in the diocese the freedom to perform their ministries without being overwhelmed by financial organization, meetings, and minutiae.
“As priests, we want to visit hospitals, we want to do weddings and funerals, we want to do baptisms. There are some priests who enjoy finance meetings, and there are some who don’t. Now, there is a structure to all of this that protects everybody, not just financially, but from rumors and gossip and stuff,” he said. “Now, we are all invited to be on the same page. This formula has been very successful in other dioceses. This is a different kind of accountability for everyone.”
Father Donahue said despite any public perception to the contrary, most priests aren’t experts in finance and business.
“When you get a master’s degree in divinity, sometimes people think it’s also a master’s degree in business administration because churches are complex financial organizations as much as they are the family of God. Anything that helps level the playing field, anything that helps give everybody a chance to understand the accountability around everyone, the better,” the Paulist priest said. “In the end, as priests, we want to be men of prayer who are good stewards of the resources of our parishes and diocese. This is a way that seems to be working across the country to achieve that.”
The East Tennessee Catholic Community Investment and Loan Inc. board of trustees is composed of Bishop Mark Beckman, ex officio; Tom Coulter, president; Mark Haub, vice president; Father Adam Royal, secretary; Marie Wilson; Mike Connor; Chad Bergman; Charles Goodhard; Father Miguel Vélez Cardona, dean; Father Donahue, dean; Father Jim Vick, dean; Deacon Hicks Armor, ex officio; Christine Lucheon, ex officio; and Ward Phillips, ex officio.
Father Royal is pastor of St. Alphonsus Parish in Crossville and serves as dean of the Cumberland Mountain Deanery. Father Vick is pastor of St. Bridget Parish in Dayton and serves as dean of the Chattanooga Deanery. Father Vélez is pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Morristown and serves as the dean of the Five Rivers Deanery. And Father Donahue serves as dean of the Smoky Mountain Deanery.
Deacon Armor, who serves at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, also is director of Stewardship and Strategic Planning for the Diocese of Knoxville.
Christine Lucheon, who is an inactive certified public accountant, is the director of Finance for the Diocese of Knoxville. She and her husband, Deacon David Lucheon, are members of All Saints Parish in Knoxville.