THE parishes that make up the diocese of Dublin are now more than £2.7 million in the black, according to the latest published figures.
Last year the more than 1,000,000 Catholics in the diocese gave a total of £26.4 million in church collections and other donations.
The 199 parishes cost more than £25.5 million to run, including £10 million spent on the salaries of priests and other employees.
The diocesan accounts for 1995 also show that Dublin's 800 priests were paid between £10,500 and £13,400 each, from which tax and PRSI were deducted.
A surplus of £887,000 has been carried over from last year, along with the surplus of £1,846 from the previous year, when the diocese paid off the last of the £14 million debt run up over the previous decade.
The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, is entitled to a salary from the four Dublin parishes of which he is parish priest. These include Sean McDermott Street and the Pro Cathedral.
However, he donates the salaries to the diocese, along with any other income he is entitled to by virtue of his office, including donations received from time to time. The archbishop lives on the pension he receives from UCD where he was previously professor of general metaphysics.
The diocesan accounts, published this week, cover the year to the end of June 1995 and will be summarised in a letter from Archbishop Connell to be read out at Masses next Sunday. Pamphlets summarising the accounts will also be distributed.
The purpose of making the information public is to show how money given by parishioners is pent, according to Father John Dardis, the diocesan spokesman.
The contributions include family offerings, collections for the support of priests, the Share collection, donations and income from fund raising activities. Last year £7.4 million was raised through the family collection, while £8.5 million was raised in collections for the support of priests.
As well as the expenditure on salaries, the parishes spent £6 million on building projects and £1.5 million in contributions towards running 491 primary schools.
Last year the Dublin parishes contributed £442,000 towards diocesan administrative expenses. This money went to top up income from charitable trust funds under the control of Archbishop Connell which are used to meet running costs, according to Mgr John Wilson, the chief financial officer of the diocese.
These charitable trust funds include the administrative fund from which £27,000 was lent to a north Dublin priest in 1993 to pay damages to a young man in settlement of a civil claim for sex abuse.
Accounts for these trust funds have not been published, but the diocese is considering publishing them in future.
