Churchgoers in the Philippines rejoiced last week when they read a pastoral statement from the Catholic bishops’ conference vowing to abolish the “arancel” system — the practice of giving a fixed stipend to priests for church services.
The conference said on Jan. 28 that the system “can be a hindrance for the poor to receive God’s grace and blessings.”
After collecting the church “tariff” for centuries, Philippine bishops have finally decided to abolish it.
It was imposed during the early years of Spanish colonial rule when Spanish missionaries fell short of the funds needed to build churches in the newly colonized Las Isla de Filipinas, as the Philippines was then known.
Money from Spain took years to arrive. Missionaries needed to look for alternative sources of funds to continue their missionary work. As a result, the arancel system was instituted primarily to supplement revenue derived from church estates.
In poor parishes, a system needed to be in place to ensure a continuous flow of funds. To rely on fluctuating donations with fixed expenses for electricity and water, among other things, would be a bane to apostolic work.
The system has become the norm. Filipinos have developed the consciousness that church services need to be paid for. Every sacrament has a corresponding church fee.
But times have changed. And our bishops are very much aware of it. They even quoted Scriptures in their pastoral statement to support the arancel abolition: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give” (Mt. 10:8).
More than citing the Bible, they have realized that the system itself is anti-poor and has become an obstacle to many people receiving the sacraments.
The number of couples living together without the Sacrament of Marriage has grown significantly in the Philippines. Couples choose to live together without having a church wedding because they think they are extremely expensive.
Church marriage fees normally cost thousands of pesos, which most ordinary wage earners would find expensive.
Baptisms and Masses for the dead have also become indications of social class. A single funeral Mass is more expensive than one with two or more caskets inside a church.
Even young professionals opt to have civil weddings because they view church weddings as expensive. Many of these couples eventually have a church wedding when their belt is not tight anymore, that is, when they are settled and usually when their children have already finished college.
Mass weddings and baptisms are available in parishes, but they are not sufficient to accommodate the ballooning number of couples and infants that need the sacraments.
With the coronavirus battering the Philippines for more than a year now, this number has probably doubled. With fewer job opportunities and more retrenchments, couples would rather continue to live their lives under one roof without the Sacrament of Marriage.
The bishops said the abolition of the arancel system is a “concrete step” in renewing the practice of stewardship. They have committed themselves to the education, formation and catechesis in the Spirituality of the Stewardship for the clergy, religious and the laity.
Dioceses are being urged to set up a concrete program of stewardship to instill in the minds of churchgoers the spirit of generosity. Forging a stronger spirit of stewardship will hopefully propel churchgoers to be generous in supporting church projects or missions.
“We encourage all the baptized to regularly, wholeheartedly and generously contribute to the Church so that we can fulfill our common mission of spreading the Good News, of serving humanity and caring for the whole of creation,” they said.
They feel by instilling the significance of generosity in the hearts and minds of churchgoers, missionary projects will remain afloat.
The bishops’ attempt to remove an outdated way of securing church funds is laudable. Yet a new formation among churchgoers must develop — it is the spirit of stewardship and generosity.
After all, taxes do not sustain church projects. Generous hearts do.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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