Jumping right back in… retirement became boring more quickly than I had expected! The firm sold at the beginning of the year and we had committed to transition the clients through this tax season. I’ve been working with some of them for over twenty years and I had thought I’d be glad to have all the time off. The sad fact is, I don’t miss it, but here it is coming near the end of May and I am already prowling around looking for something else to do. Thirty five years is plenty of time to have enjoyed all the ups and downs of having my own firm, so I can honestly say I do not miss the day-to-day. And I get to see the pretty office manager every day anyway!What more is there to ask?

Still, I need something to do. And more than that, I need something to do with numbers more than the Sudoku in the morning paper. The thought occurred to me during Mass last weekend when I should have been paying attention. Sorry Father! I have been in the business of advising businesses and people on their finances. When people took my advice they did pretty well. When they didn’t take my advice… at least I was paid handsomely to be ignored. So I sat there in my scratched oak pew last Sunday and thought that maybe it would be worth poking my nose into church finances. Not my own Parish, mind you, no, it’s too small to be interesting and two rotations on our “finance council” were sufficiently painful to make me not want to ever do that again. But the finances of the Oakland Diocese? Now that’s another kettle of fish entirely.

The Oakland Diocese has to be one of the most indebted Dioceses in the United States. We floated bonds. We built a cathedral. We settled lawsuits. We ran through about four Bishops in less than 10 years –it looks like they couldn’t get out fast enough! That has the feel of a complex financial story any good money person can enjoy digging around in. I only made it through two years of seminary, but the little Latin I do remember taught me: “sequi pecuniam”, which I think translates into “follow the money”. Don’t quote me on that, like I said, I came back home after only part way through.

My experience is that if you follow the money (at least where people are involved) it will lead somewhere interesting. The question is: how much can one learn about a Diocese from the outside? And, related, what are we not supposed to learn? What it is true of every financial statement I have ever read is that there are the things the statements are obligated to say and the things the statements would rather people not ask too many questions about. It is the second part of that truth that makes being an accountant so much fun: getting to the real story hidden in the numbers. So sitting in Mass I decided my new hobby would be to use my free time and 40 years of financial thinking to learn about the finances of Dioecesis Quercopolitana.

I skyped with the boy and he set me up with a new email and blog and I’m going to try to keep a running account of what I learn right here. Ruth isn’t too happy with my idea, but I like it. For now there is no need to make any of this formal. I intend to document my findings and keep the exercise materially academic.