Bishop Sweeney’s 2026 message regarding the finances of the Diocese of Paterson
Dear Friends in Christ,
As I mark the end of my sixth year as your bishop, I offer heartfelt thanks to Our Lord and to all of you — parishioners, donors, and friends of the Diocese of Paterson — whose faithful generosity makes the work of Christ possible in our community. Your gifts of time, talent, and treasure allow us to encounter and serve the People of God in ways both great and small.
In the website link below , you will find access to the audited financial statements of the diocese for our fiscal year 2025, which ended on June 30, 2025. I am pleased to report that the diocese once again received an unqualified audit opinion from our auditor, Grant Thornton.
You, our parishioners, are the heart of our diocese. The good works and evangelization efforts carried out across our parishes and schools and agencies flow directly from your personal faith — nurtured in prayer and through the sacraments. The Diocesan Ministries Appeal and your weekly offertory gifts are vivid expressions of your response to Christ’s call to be his disciples and to share his Good News in word and deed.
Please read the letter from Patrick Brennan, our chief financial officer. His letter explains how your sacrificial gifts are used across the diocese, and particularly within the Central Business Office, which supports our active and retired priests, parishes, and Catholic schools. In a special way, your gifts also provide significant financial support for vocations and the formation of our seminarians, our Catholic Charities agencies, urban Catholic education, and the healthcare needs of our priests.
In his recent encyclical, our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV reminds us that “human dignity does not depend on a person’s abilities, wealth, or position in life… it is a gift that precedes and transcends each person, endowed by God as an expression of his unfailing love” (Magnifica Humanitas, 50). It is precisely this vision of the human person that animates the works of mercy carried out each day in our parishes, schools, and at Catholic Charities.
Thank You for all you do for our Church, the diocese, and your parishes and schools.
Commending you to the care of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Hope and Good Counsel, and with a prayer for the Lord’s blessing, I remain
Faithfully yours in Christ,
[1] FY2025 Audited Financial Statements
CFO Brennan discusses the financial health of the Diocese of Paterson in 2026
By PATRICK BRENNAN
CFO, Paterson Diocese
As we reflect on Fiscal 2025 and look ahead, I remain grateful for the special opportunity to assist diocese leaders with their careful stewardship of temporal assets. I can report that the overall fiscal health of the Diocese of Paterson remains stable despite significant ongoing and developing challenges. We are so blessed and fortunate to benefit from the deep generosity of committed parishioners and donors. And we are also appreciative of the daily efforts of our pastors, administrators, school leaders, agency heads, and lay staff who so selflessly manage the ministries, evangelization, and human services of the Diocese of Paterson. Your generosity to the annual Diocesan Ministry Appeal ensures that essential funding is provided every year to four critical areas of mission impact: Catholic Charities, Seminarian Education, Support for Inner-City Catholic schools, and the Care of Retired and Infirm Priests.
Grant Thornton LLP has completed its annual audit of the financial statements of the diocese for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. These financial statements reflect the financial activities of the Chancery Office, including central business operations, self-insurance programs, priests’ catastrophic healthcare, the Mission Fund, the Catholic Education Trust, and Calvary Cemetery. Individual parishes, schools, and social service organizations are distinct from the Chancery and maintain separate financial records and reporting. The audit report is accompanied by an unmodified opinion, which is the highest level of assurance issued by the auditors, indicating that they believe the financial statements present fairly the Chancery’s financial position of June 30, 2025 and 2024. A copy of Grant Thornton’s audit report and the accompanying financial statements is now available for review on the Diocese website.
The following is a brief summary of the significant factors affecting the financial status of the diocese in Fiscal 2025:
Central Business Operations:
Parish assessment revenues of $6.62 million were up about 7.5 percent, reflecting improvement in the economics of most of our 106 parishes during Fiscal 2025. Diocese Ministry Appeal revenues of $3.74 million were up slightly due to a slight increase in the number of donors as well as in the average gift. Rental income increased to $1.24 million due to a new rental agreement with a vacant school. Total revenues rebounded slightly to $58.4 million in Fiscal 2025 versus $55.3 million in Fiscal 2024 due mostly to increased income from assessments, contributions, and rent.
Program expenses for evangelization, social ministry, and pastoral activities of $8.86 million increased by 6.3 percent over the prior year. School subsidies and other education-related expenses of $1.8 million were essentially flat over the prior year, reflecting continuing stability at our elementary schools and the diocese’s commitment to keeping Catholic education affordable while helping schools explore ways to remain sustainable.
The following pie charts depict the major sources of revenues and areas of expense for Central Business Operations in Fiscal 2025. In Fiscal 2025, about 78 cents of every dollar of income to the diocese was used to directly support the evangelical, ministerial, and educational missions of the diocese. Additional detail about revenues and a break-out of expenses by functional area are presented within the audited financial statements on the Statement of Activities on page 6.
Self-Insurance Programs
The diocese is self-insured for all employee benefits and liability coverages and also provides these insurances to our parishes, institutions, and related agencies. Premiums charged and payments made on claims appear in the consolidated financial statements. In fiscal year 2025, total premiums collected for insurances were $36.9 million and total claims and expenses were $38.8 million, and both are reflected as part of the change in net assets in Fiscal 2024.
Financial Priorities Going Forward
In Fiscal 2025, the diocese continued to face persistent fiscal headwinds. Some parishes are experiencing flat or declining offertory revenues in an environment of rising property and liability insurance premiums, increases in employee health insurance claims, and inflationary pressure on facilities maintenance, which all contribute to ongoing stresses to sustainability. At the same time, we are encouraged by growth in the spiritual vitality of many parishes and perceptible increases in Mass attendance and the sacraments among younger people, especially in our vibrant Hispanic communities. This gives us reason for real hope even as we manage difficult financial realities.
The Diocese Finance team focuses on providing accurate and timely financial reporting, billing, and payments processing as well as financial analysis and insights to help diocese, parish, and school leaders with planning and decision-making. Some of the priority financial areas we addressed in Fiscal Year 2024 include:
- Monitoring parish and school financial status: The great majority of parishes and schools remained financially stable in Fiscal 2025, but some continued to face continued and significant financial stresses and uncertainty. To address this challenge, in the Fall of 2025 we formed a team of pastors to review the offertory improvement programs offered by several nationally recognized consulting firms. The pastor team recommended two firms to our interested parishes, and about a dozen parishes have chosen to participate in the offertory programs this Spring with promising results so far. More have expressed interest in doing the program in the future.
- Retirement Plans: Our retirement plans for our lay staff and priests are stable and remain on track to ultimately achieve full funding. The significant changes we made with the Lay Pension in 2024 have met our expectations and greatly enhanced our ability to fund the Lay Pension for decades to come. Employee participation levels in the Lincoln 403(b) defined contribution retirement plan remained high in Fiscal 2025 with over 60 percent of employees participating voluntarily and receiving 3 percent matches, with certain pension-eligible employees receiving additional special grants.
- Insurance Benefits: Fiscal 2025 was challenging for our health benefits costs as we experienced a higher than usual number of serious cases for cancers and heart disease. The new treatments for these illnesses are lifesaving but also very expensive. On a positive note, we are seeing an increase in those selecting the Health Savings Account (HSA) option, which provides triple tax-advantaged lifetime savings for employees and helps to reduce both employer and employee costs.Property & Liability premium rates are also increasing due to higher losses across the industry. Carriers now wait until the last possible moment to provide rates since they want to minimize their own uncertainty and risk. This environment remains challenging since property and liability insurance is such a large operating expense for our parishes, schools, and agencies. We continue to seek alternatives to minimize the impact on our entities while making sure we always have sufficient coverage to prudently manage financial risks.
- Funding Sexual Abuse Claims: In Fiscal 2025, there were no additional claims related to the Independent Victims Compensation Fund, which was initiated by the five New Jersey dioceses in 2019. In addition, NJ Child Victims Act windows were opened beginning in December 2019 and reopened again in December 2021. As of May 2026, there are 105 open claims filed under these acts naming the Chancery, four fewer than in May 2025 due to settlements or deaths. We are currently working actively with our legal team, the plaintiffs’ lawyers, and an arbitration judge to negotiate a possible settlement of the claims.
Everywhere I look, I find reason for hope — in the generosity of those who support our parishes and schools, and in the quiet, faithful service of our priests, religious, teachers, and lay leaders. Their witness reminds me why this work matters. I remain committed to safeguarding the resources entrusted to our care and to serving, with renewed energy, in the mission Christ has set before us.
— Patrick Brennan, chief financial officer, Diocese of Paterson
