Priests asked to donate JobKeeper allowance to the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church has asked priests eligible for JobKeeper to donate the extra allowance back to the organisation.

The Catholic Church has asked priests who received JobKeeper to donate almost half of the extra allowance back to their Catholic diocese.

In letters obtained by ABC Investigations, some priests were asked to hand back a portion of the payment to the Catholic Church, to help make up for a plunge in donations from churchgoers.

Sent to clergy in the Diocese of Parramatta in Western Sydney, the letters request an “amount between $500 and $700 per fortnight is recommended” to “assist with future payments and the balance sheet”.

“The closure of churches and the stopping of public masses has had a drastic effect on not only our parish communities, but also the pastoral revenue collection,” another letter reads.

It’s unclear whether the letters were sent to all clergy in the diocese, or only those receiving JobKeeper payments.

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The Catholic Church has asked priests who received JobKeeper to donate almost half of the extra allowance back to their Catholic diocese. Picture: Pascal Pochard-Casabianca/AFP

“One of the fundamental principles of the church, and the priests who commit to joining it, is to help the poor,” a senior Catholic Church employee told the ABC, describing the church’s request to the clergy as “immoral”.

“For the church to use these funds in this way, while so many others in their community are excluded from JobKeeper or are seriously struggling financially at the moment, is simply shocking.”

The Fair Work Ombudsman, which administers the JobKeeper rules, said in a statement that it was only illegal for employers to force employees to pay money back to their employer – which there was no explicit sign of in the letters to the priests.

Churches and other places of worship were forced to close in March under the Federal Government’s coronavirus restrictions, and have since observed a slow reopening with limited capacities enforced.

Religious practitioners only became eligible for JobKeeper following an amendment to the scheme’s rules at the beginning of May.

The Archdiocese of Sydney confirmed it had signed up for JobKeeper, though it’s unclear how many of its 516 priests have received the payments.

Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, said in a published letter to clergy and parishioners that his archdiocese were “grateful that through the hard work of our Chancery staff, the Federal Government was persuaded to extend the JobKeeper allowance to clergy and employees in parishes and the archdiocese”.