Money in catholic parish life in France

The Church may be seen as a very structured and very rich multinational. However, it would be a serious mistake to believe that this is so. Particularly with respect to finance, there are relatively few examples of organisations which allow such freedom at the lowest level of the hierarchy which legalises blatant inequalities between different groups. Governed universally by canon law, the Church is also subject to state law, which can have consequences at a local level. In France, dioceses are subdivided into parishes representing the Church. It was while studying the financial movements in parishes in particular that Nicolas de Bremond d'Ars wrote his thesis entitled Monetary society and religion. This enabled him to show the different ways of practising one’s faith, and the variety of expectations regarding religion, which this entails. Conversely, analysis of the budgets managed by priests and parish groups sheds light on the way in which the ecclesiastical institution perceives its relationship with the outside world.