Madam, - The report by your religious affairs correspondent, Patsy McGarry, on the 2002-2003 financial report for the Catholic diocese of Dublin, was headlined "€15.9 million donated for priest support" (The Irish Times, April 26th).
Some simple mathematics will put that impressive figure into perspective. The number of priests is 702; this means that the average gross income of a priest of the diocese was €22,730. (The average industrial wage is about €28,000.)
Out of that, each priest would have work expenses, which vary according to individual situations; mine usually come to between 25 and 30 per cent of gross income. The net income which remains is then subject to income tax.
A further figure can be derived with another bit of long division. The total raised for all funds was €58.01 million; this includes support of priests, maintenance, and special collections. The total Catholic population (which includes children, and those who take no part in church life) was 1,087,285.
This means that the average contribution per person was €43.75 for the year - less than €1 a week per person towards all funds. If we exclude perhaps 60 per cent who contribute nothing, it would bring the average contribution perhaps to around €2 per person per week.
Looked at simply from a commercial point of view, it seems a remarkable operation in 200 parishes for a very small financial input. - Yours, etc.,
PADRAIG McCARTHY, The Presbytery, Avoca, Co Wicklow.