A bit more info please...
Are you a Bishop or priest?

Clarification... I'm talking about my personal donation as a parishioner.

Oh your donation...

You should talk to your pastor, tell him about your desires for your music program and offer to spearhead an effort to pay for it.

Are you the Music Director? Are you talking about paying someone who is already there as a volunteer? Are you tithing 10%?

If you feel that it would benefit the church, do it.

It is your tithe to the church, the church being The Church and not the parish - diocese - or the person who polishes the doorknobs at the Vatican.

A much more difficult question faces those who are underpaid by a parish - should they then tithe from the pittance? The true answer is simple. Would a priest tithe from his stipend for saying Mass? That would help answer it.

Excellent. I think I'll do it.

?

Well I hate that game, and when melo says something I don't understand, I get nnnneeeerrrrvvvvous!

I get it now..."are you a bishop? Priest? Music director?do you tithe?" Twenty questions!

Nothing like getting the punch line...¦-)

Yes indeed, and it was a very good joke. And the fact remains that you are a "force" to be "reckoned with!"

I have not put a penny into the collection plate for my diocese for many many years. I don't see this as a problem.

Instead I give my time to repair things around the Church, I supply food etc. to our priests, and give money to the FSSP, pro life causes etc.

We don't have a frivolity problem. We are small and poor, maybe a hundred registered families, and one Sunday Mass. Our collection today was $518.00. That's up almost $100. from last week.

Our diocese publishes the following tithe guidelines: 4% local parish; 1% diocese; 5% other. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this is fairly standard Catholic teaching.

I believe that as a giver I am entitled to decide where my money is spent. For example, I became aware of a need for a baby sitter for a woman in RCIA, and so I hired a sitter and gave the money out of the 4% that I usually give to the parish. It was much easier to do this than try to give through the front office and make sure that the money went to the sitter. In my mind, this is compassionate and perfectly legitimate tithing.

Jani, personally speaking, I would put your need for an accompanist in this same category. Trust your judgement and give your money.

TCC, I'm not sure to what you refer when you use the term transparent, but here is a clarification on my part.

I am comfortable giving 4% to my parish and 1% to my diocese and then learning how the money was spent when I get an end of the year report. This is transparency enough for me. The 5% other category is money that I give directly to "other" causes like CFCA (now called Unbound), etc.

Here's my point: If I want part of my 4% parish tithe to go to a particular cause within the parish, then I take the liberty of giving it directly to the cause (i.e., baby sitter in previous post).

...dangerously close to a holier-than-thou contest...habits that might lead to arrogantly attempting to exert control...time to find another parish.

Adam, you lost me. I see no logical connection between my statements and self-righteousness, arrogance and separatism.

Adam, you lost me. I see no logical connection between my statements and self-righteousness, arrogance and separatism.

Right. Which is why i said, "this is what i do," not, "this is what you should do."

Tithing is something I remember hearing nothing about when I was younger. It was something preached and practiced by Protestant churches, for the most part. I think the Catholic Church came to the concept a bit late, at least in the U.S.

Tithe, while there is no general obligation to Tithe, there have been binding local obligations. England had rules for Tithing but these effectively ended for Catholics at the Reformation, interestingly the church of England still has various ancient laws compelling the material support of the local church. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancel_repair_liability

I believe Canon Law instructs us "To contribute to the material support of the Church"
For most people that means contributing money to the various collections.

This makes it very easy for us, just place 5% / 10% of our Net / Gross earnings in the collection over the course of the year. Of course we can give more than this, sometimes known as the Widow's Might.

But is it better to give money?

If my wife cooks a meal for our priests once a week, this has several different costs / values,
1. The cost to me of the ingredients
2. The cost of my wife's time
3. The cost to the priests of providing the meal themselves.

In this case it can be much better value to give the time and food, rather than the money.

A tradesman instead of giving money, could do repairs around the church, 5% of his time could be worth far more in monetary terms than 5% of his income.

A Professional musician could give part of their time, 5% of time v 5% of income?

Personally I do not like to see my money spent of giant felt puppets etc. or on unnecessary re-ordering of the church building to suit the latest fad!

Will I not be called to account for how I gave my money and time?

I've never (in my 52 years as a Catholic) heard of a mandated exact percentage of giving either. There have always been suggestions, of course, and it is the fifth Commandment of the Church "to contribute to the support of our pastors."

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 2043:

The fifth precept (“You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church”) means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.86
The faithful also have the duty of providing for the material needs of the Church, each according to his abilities.87

Once again...our current pastor is "on loan" to us from Central America and has no involvement with the business aspects - our finances are managed by a parish administrator in Salt Lake City, who is not only new to the job, I don't think he's ever been at the parish to even visit.

I just reviewed the diocese's "Just Compensation for Musicians" guidelines - the individual parishes are encouraged to hire qualified musicians on one end of the spectrum, to paying for non-degreed but experienced musicians. No way the diocese will help pay for a musician, but as I said, if payment comes out of our collections, it will increase our financial dependence on the diocese to a greater degree. Although Salt Lake City is not rich, I think they can afford to help us a bit more.

Here is the reality, at least in rural Utah - they talk a good talk in the diocese, but the effort put forth to really be helpful is not there. We blow in the wind, and that's a fact. The only way we have survived is by the concerted effort of a core group of about ten people.

Thanks Charles - I was just about to concede defeat.

Adam has used important words in his posts: responsibility, discernment and habit.

I would reiterate my counsel to Jani: since you are in the habit of giving, use your discernment to decide what is responsible giving - trust your judgement - and then give your money.

All this tax-talk has got me knickers in a knot!!!

Here is the reality, at least in rural Utah - they talk a good talk in the diocese, but the effort put forth to really be helpful is not there. We blow in the wind, and that's a fact. The only way we have survived is by the concerted effort of a core group of about ten people.

All the more reason, in my opinion, to direct your giving to support the beauty of the liturgy. THIS IS IMPORTANT!