Financial Discipline
人在最小的事上忠心、在大事上也忠心．在最小的事上不义、在大事上也不义。 倘若你们在不义的钱财上不忠心、谁还把那真实的钱财托付你们呢。 倘若你们在别人的东西上不忠心、谁还把你们自己的东西给你们呢。 一个仆人不能事奉两个主．不是恶这个爱那个、就是重这个轻那个．你们不能又事奉 神、又事奉玛门。 (路加福音 16:10-13)
彼得说：“金银我都没有，只把我所有的给你；我奉拿撒勒人耶稣基督的名，叫你起来行走！” 于是拉着他的右手，扶他起来，他的脚和踝子骨，立刻健壮了， 就跳起来，站着，又行走。同他们进了殿，走着，跳着，赞美 神。 百姓都看见他行走，赞美 神。 (使徒行传 3:6-9)
A survey by researchers at Villanova University has found that 85 percent of Roman Catholic dioceses that responded had discovered embezzlement of church money in the last five years, with 11 percent reporting that more than $500,000 had been stolen.
The Catholic Church has some of the most rigorous financial guidelines of any denomination, specialists in church ethics said, but the survey found that the guidelines were often ignored in parishes. And when no one is looking, the cash that goes into the collection plate does not always get deposited into the church’s bank account.
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The Salvation Army is widely considered exemplary among nonprofits in handling cash collections. The red buckets in which bell ringers collect donations are covered and locked, and all buckets must be returned to a central location, where at least two people count the number and type of bills, coins and checks, said Major George Hood, the charity’s national spokesman.
The money must be deposited in the bank within 24 hours, and different people reconcile the initial tallies with bank records, Major Hood said.
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Source: Embezzlement Is Found in Many Catholic Dioceses, New York Times, 1/5/2007.