Which ones catch your eye?

Sometimes it's a bad thing sometimes not. But if a music job really is part time, and they want someone good, it makes sense to maybe combine the job with other duties in order to be able to offer full time employment (ie. Full time salary with benefits)

There is no such thing as a part time church music position if one is also the organist.

Hmmm. I would rather sweep up or take out the trash than some of the things that I have been made to do in music "ministry".

Clarification

I am aluding to the fact that a good organist will have to learn, practice and play preludes, postludes, interludes, weddings, funerals, all masses, not to mention concerts if specified. Most do not comprehend the time required to do well.

Paix

Are you an organist?

The idea of a small parish barely making it is a fallacy.

Sorry, but the financial resources are usually so well hidden - between the parishes, the diocese and beyond, that I know of no parish that is truly on the verge of closing its doors. Unless the bishop wants to shut them down, then they are gone. But it's not a matter of bringing in enough money, but rather deciding that the future of that group does not deserve being maintained.

Part time positions are ones where the priest is not convinced there is any need for a "full-time" person committed to the music for the Mass. Many parish staff positions are filled with people barely competent so why should the person at the organ at Mass be any different?

Any parish needing money gets it from the diocese....unless the diocese wants to shut them down.

So the diocese is a rich fairy godmother with an endless supply of hidden money that it doles out to parishes that spend beyond their means, no questions asked?

Yeah the diocese has a lot of money. They don't just happily hand it out to parishes with 400 families who want a full complement of full time staff.

True enough, fair enough. Dioceses are not the fairy god-mother for every parish's wish list. However, one would suggest on likely indeflectible grounds that in a very appreciable majority of cases a given parish or a given diocese has or will find all the money it really wants for what it really and truly wants it for, whether that is a suitable auto-mobile car for father, new kitchen amenities, new carpeting (&*%^&*&#), repaving the parking lot, a new roof, new sporting equipment for the team, just about anything that they decide they really want that, objectively, may or may not actually be needed. So, it is greatly, hideously disingenuous for them most of the time to say to the choirmaster/organist 'we don't have any money, things are really tight right now, etc,, etc.'. Other people, with few exceptions, don't get told that. People in gravely abject povery stricken parish situations get a free pass here. The average parish doesn't get a free pass here: they can get those things that they truly want and will find the money for them.

If an organ is wanted and the powers that be agree that it would be A Good Thing, well, dear friends, for THIS the parish will not 'find' the money, we have to wait (and wait 'how long, O Lord, how long?) for a donor, a benefactor to pay for it, No, we won't cough up the money we could easily find... not to buy an organ! (An organ, by the way, the cost of which should have been factored from the beginning into the cost of building the church.

It's all about practical things we want to have with nary a question asked about good stewardship of resources; but liturgy? music? an organ? a well-paid and hightly qualified choirmaster? - for these things the question of good stewardship can be counted on to be raised with the insinuation that this is poor stewardship. I have witnessed this disgracefull charade countless times in churches that went on to vote 25 to 100 or more thousand dollars for someone's pet project or sacred cow. SO: THE MONEY IS THERE! In most situations, all the money that's needed is there for what they want it for. It's there in the coffers, or can easily be raised in short order.

2 1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not in loftiness of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of Christ. et ego cum venissem ad vos fratres veni non per sublimitatem sermonis aut sapientiae adnuntians vobis testimonium Christi
2 2 For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ: and him crucified. non enim iudicavi scire me aliquid inter vos nisi Iesum Christum et hunc crucifixum
2 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. et ego in infirmitate et timore et tremore multo fui apud vos
2 4 And my speech and my preaching was not in the persuasive words of human wisdom. but in shewing of the Spirit and power: et sermo meus et praedicatio mea non in persuasibilibus sapientiae verbis sed in ostensione Spiritus et virtutis
2 5 That your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. ut fides vestra non sit in sapientia hominum sed in virtute Dei
2 6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, neither of the princes of this world that come to nought. sapientiam autem loquimur inter perfectos sapientiam vero non huius saeculi neque principum huius saeculi qui destruuntur
2 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory: sed loquimur Dei sapientiam in mysterio quae abscondita est quam praedestinavit Deus ante saecula in gloriam nostram
2 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. quam nemo principum huius saeculi cognovit si enim cognovissent numquam Dominum gloriae crucifixissent
2 9 But, as it is written: That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard: neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him. sed sicut scriptum est quod oculus non vidit nec auris audivit nec in cor hominis ascendit quae praeparavit Deus his qui diligunt illum
2 10 But to us God hath revealed them by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. nobis autem revelavit Deus per Spiritum suum Spiritus enim omnia scrutatur etiam profunda Dei
2 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him? So the things also that are of God, no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God. quis enim scit hominum quae sint hominis nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est ita et quae Dei sunt nemo cognovit nisi Spiritus Dei
2 12 Now, we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God: that we may know the things that are given us from God. nos autem non spiritum mundi accepimus sed Spiritum qui ex Deo est ut sciamus quae a Deo donata sunt nobis
2 13 Which things also we speak: not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. quae et loquimur non in doctis humanae sapientiae verbis sed in doctrina Spiritus spiritalibus spiritalia conparantes
2 14 But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God. For it is foolishness to him: and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. animalis autem homo non percipit ea quae sunt Spiritus Dei stultitia est enim illi et non potest intellegere quia spiritaliter examinatur
2 15 But the spiritual man judgeth all things: and he himself is judged of no man. spiritalis autem iudicat omnia et ipse a nemine iudicatur
2 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. quis enim cognovit sensum Domini qui instruat eum nos autem sensum Christi habemus

How many Catholic churches, not diocese, declare bankruptcy each year?

Because they legally can't without the diocese's permission.

Aren't most dioceses of the US still on the corporation-sole system, in which the diocese owns all parishes? I think that would make bankruptcy impossible for individual parishes. (A few dioceses have restructured to set up separate corporations for the parishes, an approach which reflects church law better.)

Andrew, those are very good observations, and there have been many disputes in various (primarily urban) dioceses where a parish scheduled to be shuttered becomes "occupied" by parishioners via legal maneuvers and actual physical proximity (picketing etc.)
And your first scenario was spot on, the Diocese of Milwaukee is/was under scrutiny for the See having sequestered $56M formerly in general fund accounts into the cemetaries' line items, presumably as "protection." I don't render actual knowledge of those circumstances. One thing I agree with Noel on is that the processes are arcane and labyrinthian.
I do know that pastors and (hopefully) their mandated finance councils are compelled to make things work at the parish level. And at times, I've been frankly surprised when I hear of "unfunded mandates" that are leveled upon pastors and parishes by chanceries all over the map with the expectation that the people will pony up for those as well as their own financial concerns.

@Andrew: Using separate entities does make each parish responsible for its own liabilities; on the other hand, it reduces the "deep pockets" temptation that encourages fraudulent or exaggerated claims against church institutions.

PaixGioiaAmor, thanks for elaborating small parish realities.
In speaking with people, sometimes I have explained it:
When the scythe is swung, the short ones get haircuts, the tall ones lose their heads.

That was my point. EVEN IF you counted that much time, on an average week there are some places where the work week wouldn't be above 25 hours.

In some smaller parishes, assuming 2 weekend masses, let's say two hours each to account for meeting a cantor beforehand, so that's 4 hours there. 2 hours for choral rehearsal, plus 2 hours prep time with scores, etc (Although in a parish that small, I doubt there's much heavy choral music being sung) Then add 10 hours a week for organ practice just to be charitable ... That adds up to less than 20 hours.

Want to add in "planning" to select hymns, ok add 2 hours a week (a ridiculously high number) ... you still get 20 hours.

So in some small parishes, it's not even reasonable to demand that there should be a full time director of music and organist. They would be paid for what exactly?