Editor’s note: This story appeared in 2014. The information it contains may be out of date.

Please see the updated story: Where does your parish offering go?

When you put your offering in the collection basket at Mass, make an electronic gift or give a special year-end donation to your parish, *92 cents of every dollar you give stays in your parish or supports initiatives as determined by your parish.

Your gift keeps the lights and heat on at your parish, maintains your church and other parish campus buildings, provides fair wages and benefits to parish staff, helps provide Catholic education at your parish school and through your parish faith formation program, supports music ministry and provides for other outreach ministry in your community. Your support allows your parish to share the Gospel message and the joy of knowing Jesus Christ.

For this budget year, of every dollar you give to your parish, 8 cents (9 cents if your parish doesn’t directly support a Catholic school) go to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Of those 8 cents, over 7 and a half cents support archdiocesan operations and ministries (see graphic for details) throughout the 12-county archdiocese. This budget year, less than half a cent of every dollar you give to the parish goes to the archdiocese to pay expenses related to clergy sexual abuse and other clergy misconduct. Historically, archdiocesan reserves and insurance have paid for legal settlements and special issues expenses that are not anticipated to be ongoing in the long-term and are arising primarily from the lifting of Minnesota’s civil statute of limitations on sexual abuse.

If you have questions about what ministries are supported at your parish, talk with your pastor or ask in your parish office. All donations to your parish are tax-deductible.