Financial outcomes in 2024

Financial Report 2024 Download

Introduction

The following report provides an overview of the Établissement’s (we will continue referring to it as Fabrique d’église or FE in the text below) budgetary developments for 2024. Last year featured a large project of fixing the church roof, which pushed the budget into red figures. Although the reparation works dragged due to technical issues, they were finalized in August (see box for more detailed information). An upleasant event was fire, which broke out in the church on 11 November. Its causes are until now unclear.

The main developments in 2024 were:

A large increase in revenue was due to a subsidy of the City of Brussels in the amount of €240,000 to fix the roof. Additional revenue came also from the ongoing collection, which finished in April 2024.
Mass collections increased. Nevertheless, they still fall short of covering the basic operational costs for running the church, such as energy, insurance, and general maintenance.
The largest spending item was the church roof reparation, which in the end cost €282,584.
Capital expenditures were largely suppressed in 2024.

The balance of revenues and expenditure

The FE budget closed 2024 with a relatively mild deficit of €6,654 after a record high deficit of €50,460 recorded in 2023. The revenue soared to €299,852, mainly due to a subsidy from the City of Brussels in the amount of €240,000 for fixing the church roof. Expenditure also exploded to 306,506€ driven by the costs of the roof project, which reached €282,584.

Revenues

Rental income: All rental categories increased, with the total rental revenue reaching €29,792, up almost 11%. Rents from the church apartment, the presbytery, and Proximus antena were driven by annual indexation. On the other hand, the main driver of the rental income from the hall in the church basement, which increased almost 80% for the second year in a row to 4,632€, was due to higher occupancy as interest for renting this space continued to increase.
Collections: This category includes Sunday mass collections that are dedicated to FE (based on a set calendar, collections are dedicated either to the FE, pastoral activities of the communities, or the diocese) and revenue from votive candles. In accounting terms, which reflect when money was transferred to the bank account and not when it was actually collected, mass collections have increased in 2024 by almost 1,400€. However, looking at how much was actually collected in 2023 (6,867€) and 2024 (7,188€), the increase is more modest, amounting to only 321€. Hence, although monthly mass collections increased by about 30€ to some 600€, they fall short of covering even the church’s operating expenditures like energy, insurance, and general maintenance, which in 2024 amounted to 1,370€ per month. The earnings from votive candels recorded a drop.

Donations: This category contains both recurring and one-time donations. In 2024, donations dropped significantly (almost 60%), which was due to the termination of the special collection for the reparation of the church roof, which ended in April. Net proceeds from this collection amounted to €45,791, with €30,665 being donated in 2023 and €15,126 in 2024. Other types of donations plunged from about €6,220 in 2023 to some €205 in 2024. The reason behind this drop was that the father Charles received until 2023 a governmental subsidy for accommodation, which he transferred in full as a donation (on top of the regular rent). As of 2024, the Father Charles is not entitled to this subsidy, and hence this donation source cannot be expected going forward.
Cost co-financing: The cost co-financing relates to the contributions of the presbytery tenants to the energy and water bills. Tenants cover 80% of the incurred costs, while the FE covers the remaining 20% to account for the use of the presbytery basement by communities. This category also includes contributions for the water consumption of the apartment tenants, as there is not a separate water connection. Energy costs in the presbytery declined markedly, which was reflected in a drop in co-financing. On the other hand, the apartment tenants were charged their water consumption for the past three years since the technical issues of the water provider Vivaqua with invoices in 2022/2023 prevented appropriate cost-sharing.
Other: This category is often negligible as it contains non-regular revenue that doesn’t appear elsewhere, such as interest and capital payouts, insurance reimbursements, and subsidies. Nevertheless, in 2024 it soared due to the subsidy from the City of Brussels of €240,000 for the repair of the church roof.

Expenditures

Energy: Energy costs edged down a bit in 2024 and are expected to stabilize in the coming period, reflecting more stable energy prices.
- Church (gas): Gas costs increased to €3,462 in 2024, driven by higher monthly advances (by €60 per month to €280), an annual settlement surcharge (€360), and an adjustment of the invoicing date, which led to 13 instead of 12 payments for gas in 2024. Neverhteless, the most important factor behind the surge was a large refund in 2023 due to elevated advances paid in 2022 (which at the time reflected soaring energy prices). A relatively stable gas usage in the ongoing 2024/25 season (see graph) should contribute to fairly stable gas outlays also in 2025.
- Church (electricity): Electricity expenses increased by some 4% in 2024 to €2,357 mainly on account of higher monthly advances paid since May (by 20€ per month to €180) and annual settlement (€110). Electricity consumption increased in the 2023/24 season, which was likely due to the more frequent usage of the hall in the church basement, where the heating is produced by electric heat pumps. In the current 2024/25 season, electricity consumption appears to have tappered off.
- Presbytery: Energy costs (gas and electricity combined) fell by 40% in 2024 to €3,628 reflecting lower advances (down by €35 to €310) and annual settlement savings (€635). With the planned repair and insulation of the presbytery roof in 2025, energy consumption may decline somewhat, leading to lower spending. However, better insulation could also help tenants to improve their living standard by increasing average heating temperature in the winter without increasing costs. In addition, a higher heating temperature would also be better for the building.
- Water: Water costs for both the church and the presbytery edged down slightly to €1,056 in 2024.

Insurance: The FE pays four insurances, including fire insurance for the church and presbytery, as well as two insurances to cover the FE’s third-party liability. Insurance costs remained relatively stable in 2024, raising only slightly by about 1.5% to €5,886.
Maintenance: Maintenance spending, which includes cleaning of the church, annual servicing of the organ, bells, boiler, and extinguishers, as well as consumable purchases (e.g., light bulbs), remained relatively stable in 2024, amounting to €2,423. While outlays on organ services were somewhat higher, they were partly offset by lower spending on cleaning (in 2023, two vacuum cleaners were bought) and ‘other’ items (e.g., purchases of bulbs, extinquisher costs).
Liturgy: Liturgical expenditure covers items such as hosts, wine, candles, liturgical books, flowers, and liturgical object purchases. In 2024, this spending plummeted by more than 40% to €2,608. While restocking hosts resulted in a rise of over €1,000 in this spending item, all other things declined. The most remarkable decrease was in candle spending (a decline of more than €2,200), since votive candles were restocked in 2023. Moreover, unlike in 2023, almost no liturgical items were purchased in 2024.

Overhead costs: The main items falling under this category are property tax on the presbytery building, secretariat expenditures such as printing services, and web hosting and bank fees. In 2024, this spending increased by almost 20% to €2,502, driven by the spike in secretariat costs due to an extension of the webhosting services for the next four years.
Capital spending: Outlays under this category, which tends to be quite volatile, consisted in 2024 only from the repair of the church roof, which amounted to €282,584 (see more detail in a box).

Box: Church Roof Renovation

After several years of water leaks, the church roof was fully rebuilt by the end of summer 2024. Below is succinct information about the project. The full report can be found here.

Only one company provided an offer to the public tender published in the official journal in September 2023. We reduced the original price offer by the JACOBS company by approximately €7,000 to €281,192. The operation to replace almost 1500 m² of roof tiles began in early March and was expected to take approximately 50 working days, according to the offer. In the end, work finished only in August, with final costs climbing to €282,584 as the contractor had the right, in accordance with Belgian legislation, to account for inflation in the billed expenses at the end of each month.

The project was financed through two sources:

Subsidies: We received two subsidies from the City of Brussels. The first, worth €180,000, was approved for the 2022 fiscal year. Upon our request, we also received a supplementary subsidy of €60,000 in 2023.
Collection: Due to lacking funds in 2023 and without clarity on the attribution of the supplementary subsidy, we initiated a special collection from the faithful in the second half of 2023. This collection ran 30 weeks until April 2024. The total amount raised was €46,356. The net proceeds from the collection were €45,791, with transaction fees for online and terminal payments totaling €565. We used €42,584 to pay the final bill and saved the remainder €3,207 for future investments.

Box: Fire in the church

On Monday, November 11—the feast of St. Martin—around noon, a fire broke out in our church. The firefighters that were dispatched managed to extinguish the fire promptly, limiting the extent of the damage. Nonetheless, the Pieta, which was located in the niche on the right side of the church, and all of the artifacts in the niche were entirely destroyed by fire. The authorities are investigating this incident as a criminal act because intentional arson cannot be completely ruled out. Another option is a short circuit in the wall connecting the two churches.

The church had to be closed for a few days due to the ongoing threat of hazardous vapors and the requirement to safeguard the location for the inquiry. But by the end of the week, it had reopened, and the Sunday masses on November 17 could proceed as usual. The niche will be renovated, and a new Pieta, donated by a closed monastery, will be installed inside.