Roman Catholic parishes in Butler County hailed the loans from the federal government's landmark small-business aid program as saving graces for their employees.

Cindy Cusic Micco, director of communications for the Butler Area Catholic Parishes, said the funds received by the five parishes in Paycheck Protection Program loans saved the group from keeping employees furloughed because of revenue cuts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Offertory contributions, for example, declined by $142,500 between 2019 and 2020 across St. Andrew, St. Fidelis, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Paul and St. Peter, the five parishes represented in the group.

With additional declines in revenue due to not holding or cutting short fundraisers such as the St. Fidelis fish fry and the Festa Italia at St. Michael the Archangel, along with uncertainty about what the future would hold, Micco said, the parishes were far from bullish about their financial outlook.

“We weren't sure,” she said. “At first, we cut back on personnel hours, and then the PPP money came through. That was a relief, that we could continue on with not having to make drastic cuts.”

The five Butler-area parishes were just one of a number of county Catholic organizations that received PPP loans in April from the federal Small Business Administration.Six parishes and schools — North Catholic High School, St. Kilian Parish and St. Ferdinand Church in Cranberry Township; Butler Catholic School in Butler; Holy Sepulcher Parish in Middlesex Township; and St. Gregory Parish and School in Zelienople — each received PPP loans of more than $150,000, according to publicly available data released by the SBA. Data for loans of less than $150,000 do not identify the recipient.Between the six county Catholic groups receiving high-dollar loans, the SBA disbursed at least $1.3 million and as much as $3.4 million. The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh itself received a $2.5 million PPP loan.North Catholic and St. Kilian were listed as the largest Catholic county recipients of federal funds, both receiving loans between $350,000 and $1 million. The remaining churches and schools received loans in the $150,000 to $350,000 range, the most specific data provided by the SBA.

Although The Associated Press recently reported that a number of dioceses, such as the Archdiocese of Louisville, saw their assets increase during the pandemic, that is not the case with the Pittsburgh diocese or county parishes.Micco said while the Butler-area parishes were in the black during the July-through-December 2020 period, that came only after receiving nearly $300,000 in parishioner bequests. Without those testamentary donations, the parishes would have carried a more than $15,000 deficit.That's despite cutting a number of expenses since October 2018, when the five parishes were grouped together. The five parish offices had been cut to two prior to the pandemic, Micco said, and COVID-19-related furloughs would have just added to that.Bob DeWitt, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh diocese, did not answer specific questions from the Eagle. However, a July diocesan news release announcing the PPP loan receipt stated the money “enabled the diocese to avoid, delay and lessen furloughs and permanent reduction in staffing that supports parishes and schools.”It added the funds were not used to compensate survivors of clergy sexual abuse or for other legal settlements.

A diocesan financial statement indicates the Pittsburgh diocese lost nearly $3 million in assets between 2018 and 2019; more recent data is not available.Micco said while the Butler parishes are handling their finances well at the moment, they are concerned about the trend of declining revenue seen in the county and across Western Pennsylvania and even the country.“You just keep trying to build up your churches, to get people back,” she said. “When people come back, the offertory (revenue) goes up. But it's a national trend for churches to be losing revenue and people.”Although the parishes' finances were affected by COVID-19, the churches still kept to their mission, Micco added.“We continued to do the ministries that we've always done,” she said. “We may be doing them differently, but we're still providing Mass for people and, of course, the Eucharist is the focus, so that continues.“In this area, we have a lot of funerals, and we provide pastoral care for the families as they go through that,” Micco added. “We also provide a community dinner every Tuesday night at St. Paul to feed the hungry. All those things are still happening.”