For more than forty years, Bernard Turella went almost every day to his parish. Young, first of all, as an altar boy. Then, at the age of 33, he gave up a position of responsibility in a large company in the region to become a parish animator at the Saint Jean Villenouvelle church in Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne), out of a desire to focus on “Faith in money”. A choice he had never regretted until now. But in June, Bernard Turella learned by mail that he was going to be made redundant by the diocese of Montauban which employs him, along with eight other of the twenty-three employees, all “lay”.
Why do these layoffs raise questions?
To justify himself, the bishop, Mgr Ginoux, put forward a purely economic decision: because of a drop in donations and bequests, the diocese would have accumulated a deficit of 400,000 euros. The church therefore no longer has enough money to pay salaries. Move around. “That there are financial problems, we can understand”, admits Krystine Fayolle, also parish animator and sacked after twenty-four years of employment in La Ville-Dieu-du-Temple. “But what we regret is the lack of humanity. The treatment we have been given is worse than in a large company. Even at Bolloré, they would not have done it like that ”, she continues. “It was extremely brutal, no one in the Church spoke to us”, confirms Bernard. He remembers, moreover, that on the day of his departure, in the middle of July, when he closed the door of his parish for the last time, “Nobody was there for [lui] say goodbye”. “I left without looking back, and I have never returned to the parish since. It kind of damaged my faith. Usually, at my summer vacation spot, I look for a church to go to mass on Sunday. This year I didn’t do it ”, tells this fiftieth birthday.
The Christian community in the region has also protested against the lack of transparency surrounding this decision by the diocese. Most of the faithful did not learn of the existence of the social plan until the layoffs were effective. Even within the Church, including in the parishes concerned, many were not informed until the decision had been taken. What Jacques Gibert bitterly regrets, parish priest at La Ville-Dieu-du-Temple: “I was not warned, no, I learned it with everyone … The least thing would have been to inform me, I’m a little [le ] responsible [de Krystine Fayolle]. Above all, I find it a quick decision. It was taken in April before becoming effective in July, that leaves little time to think “, affirms the man of the church.
Could the social plan have been avoided?
Today, the nine dismissed employees point to Pôle Emploi. A difficult situation for most to accept, barely a few years before retirement. “It costs more to pay for layoffs than to pay salaries until retirement, it’s incomprehensible”, breathes Krystine Fayolle. “For me, going to Pôle Emploi at 56 for the first time when I started working at 18, it was very trying. I told my advisor that I didn’t even know what Pôle Emploi was ”, recognizes Bernard Turella. A situation all the more difficult as for some faithful, it could have been otherwise. “We are convinced that if we had been told that the church was in difficulty, we could have mobilized to help them and pay the salaries. Why weren’t we asked? What were the other solutions? ” one wonders within the community. “Everyone came to see us when they learned that we were made redundant to tell us that they would have liked to make donations”, confirms Krystine Fayolle. The bishop, for the moment, remains silent and has not responded to our requests.
What is the financial situation of the diocese?
The financial situation of the diocese of Montauban and its recurring losses are at the heart of the debate that agitates this community. In a post published by the Catholic bulletin for the month of July, the bishop, Bernard Ginoux, sounded the alarm: “A deficit of 400,000 euros required drastic measures to be taken.” He goes on to say that he “A significant reduction in operating costs had to be carried out quickly”, and therefore to a reduction in the wage bill.
According to the financial information to which Release was able to access, the budget of the diocesan association of Montauban was in 2017 of 3.4 million euros, to which were added 911,436 euros in donations and bequests, which made it possible to generate a surplus of 543 131 euros. The budget is supplied by two sources of income: the Church’s money (which corresponds to the regular payments made by the faithful) and donations and bequests (which constitute larger amounts, but are uncertain because they are often linked to donations made. following death). If 2017 was a “good year” in terms of donations, 2018 only raised 68,000 euros according to the vicar general of the diocese. However, it is this resource that makes it possible to balance the budget each year. The layoffs would therefore have been motivated by these declining revenues.
Within the diocese, the salaries of “laity” represent an annual charge of 713,000 euros and those of “religious” only 594,000 euros. They are therefore the first to be affected by the nine job cuts, starting with the communication service, the cost of which is estimated at 122,000 euros per year. A member of the association of the diocese, familiar with the accounts, protested against this presentation of facts and figures: “The wage bill of the religious staff thus mentioned is only that of their basic salary, we must add the mass allowance (17 euros per day), travel and accommodation costs, which significantly increases the sum of 594 000 euros. “ Same dispute on the communication budget: “Substantial savings could have been achieved by replacing the paper bulletin printed and sent by post with a computer document sent by email. As for the service itself, it could have been shared with other neighboring dioceses, in order to share the cost. ”
The same interlocutor, who wished to remain anonymous, is surprised at the recruitment of seven priests in 2018 when the deficit of 400,000 euros is becoming clearer. Is also questioned, the use in recent years to thirteen priests “out of France”. The diocese must cover their training and travel costs, because they often come to France to complete their course. “Without them, we would not be able to provide service in our twenty-two parish groups”, considers Laurent Bonhomme, the vicar general, number 2 of the institution.
Alerted by the financial situation of the diocese, the French Bishops’ Conference (CEF) granted aid of nearly 200,000 euros and commissioned a financial audit. This document, which does not rule out the possibility of resorting to layoffs, apparently opened up other avenues for reducing the deficit. It was given only to the bishop, Bernard Ginoux. “This audit concluded that there were several ways to resolve the economic situation. It turns out that among all the solutions, the bishop chose one, the most radical: the redundancy ”, explains the priest Jacques Gibert. Release asked for access to it, without success, nor was it possible, despite our repeated requests, to know the main figures of the 2018 accounts.
A distribution of funds revealing tensions?
To date, relations seem extremely strained between the “laity” of the diocese (employees, former employees, or even the faithful) and the “religious” (priests, bishop). The former are worried about the growing power of the latter. The redundancies that have occurred would be one of the illustrations since they only concern “laity”. In this latent conflict, the personality of the Bishop of Montauban, Bernard Ginoux, is highlighted and in particular his positions, very conservative, at the time of the Vincent Lambert affair or during the Manif pour tous. The head of the diocese of Montauban, 4,000 subscribers on Twitter, is very attentive to the visibility of his actions.
Its power, quite centralizing, is visibly contested by a certain number of its parishioners. This is evidenced by a controversy over the management of the “parish deposit”. These funds, coming from collections made in each parish, were for a long time managed by each of them, in particular to finance building maintenance work. For several months, these sums – there are nearly two million euros in total – have been administered centrally by the diocese. As a result, the parishes began to complain that they could not freely use the money that came to them.
On July 3, Father Louis Albert, the legal specialist of the diocese, had split a rather dry letter to his hierarchy. He is worried about the fact that some parishes can no longer obtain the funds that belong to them and reminds him that this is an infringement of canon law. He ends his mail in a particularly explicit way: “The current situation is unhealthy and casts suspicion on the entire diocesan administration.” The probable appeals of the dismissed employees before the industrial tribunal, as well as the request for an independent financial audit, could make the atmosphere even more tense.
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