The official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cafod, is to make 50 staff members redundant.
A spokesman told The Tablet on Thursday: “Over the course of the next two years, Cafod anticipates 95 post reductions and 45 new positions created to reflect our changing ways of working.”
In a letter sent to bishops, priests and key supporters Cafod's Director, Chris Bain, said: “We are making the difficult decision to reduce our core organisational costs by £3 million.”
Those cuts would enable the charity to focus more resources on emergency response and long-term development programmes, Mr Bain said. He added that the charity would “put a stronger focus on opportunities to volunteer” to enable lay Catholics to play a greater role in the charity’s work. He spoke of listening more to the charity’s partner organisations on the ground and “work[ing] alongside them to shape their own future”. He also highlighted a need for Catholic NGOs to collectively “challenge the ‘globalisation of indifference’ to which Pope Francis has referred”.
News of the redundancies emerged as Cafod prepared to hold its annual Paul VI lecture this evening, which this year will be given by Argentine Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo.
Cafod's annual income in 2013/14 was £51.3m, a slight rise on the previous year’s £49m. However that increase followed a considerable drop from a spike of £61 million the previous year. This figure was unusually high and included pound-for-pound match funding from the Department for International Development for money raised through Cafod’s 2011 Family Fast Day.
Cafod currently employs 444 people and between 2012 and 2013, salary costs increased by just over £1 million. In their report the Trustees noted: “Although Cafod’s income has held up remarkably well since the beginning of the credit crunch, it remains aware of the growing economic pressure on individuals and public finances.” They added that annual income had dropped “largely because there were no new high profile emergency appeals launched during the financial year”.
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