Fees keep poor from sacraments in parts of the Philippines

In a recent homily, Bishop Patrick Daniel Parcon of Talibon Diocese shared an experience in which he saw a coffin being blessed without there being a funeral Mass. When he asked the widow why there wasn’t a Mass, she replied: “We don’t have money to pay for the Mass.”

Bishop Parcon said, “It was very sad. Everybody deserves a decent burial. Something has to be done. So I said something has to be done.”

He emphasised in his homily: “The poor cannot wait. Placing price tags on sacraments should not be the reason to deprive any single soul of the sacrament.”

Talibon is one of the few dioceses in the Philippines that has ended the arancel system – the practice of charging fixed fees for religious services. Many who lack the funds to pay for the fees cohabitate instead of receiving the sacrament of marriage for lack of money to pay for Church services.

An unintended consequence of the arancel system, which financially supports most parishes, is that the poor are unable to access the Church’s spiritual services, to which their baptism entitles them.

The document Salya: The Philippine National Synodal Report 2024 notes this particular concern.

“Despite our vision of becoming a Church of the Poor, the people continue to see it as a Church of the Privileged. Although synodality challenges the Church’s structure, programmes and mission at various levels to take the poor, marginalised and oppressed as its utmost priority, yet they are not represented in Church bodies,” the document states.

“Moreover, there is a need to review and change Church policies that alienate the poor. At the same time, there is a need to address the passivity and indifference of the poor, as well as the need for their active involvement in the life of the Church.”

In 1991, the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines ruled that “those who cannot pay the usual stipends or stole fees because of poverty will not be deprived of the sacraments or other necessary spiritual services”. But 34 years later, the arancel system has yet to be abolished.

FULL STORY

The Philippine Church’s struggle to abolish stole fees (By Ruben C. Mendoza/UCA News)