Over the years I’ve seen friends organise Catholic events here and overseas. I’ve seen how they organise and price these events.
But I’ve also seen a difference in their levels of frustration at the costs involved and how to cover them.
In the United States, if you want to attend a Catholic event, you are expected to pay— often in the hundreds of dollars.
Attending a big conference with big names in person will cost you—well—what it costs.
And the remarkable thing is that US Catholics can and do pay this to attend these events.
If they really want to go to something—and they usually do—then they will find a way, out of their own pockets.
It’s the same with online Catholic resources and courses. In the US, you are absolutely expected to pay to access many of these.
Hours of hard work have gone into writing the material and packaging it, and the labourer is worthy of their hire.
But in Australia, it’s totally different. I know that many organisers of events here find it very hard to set a price for a Catholic event.
They have to aim high enough to recoup some of the expenses, but also not so high that they put people off coming.
Catholics in Australia are much more used to being offered low-cost events that are subsidised in some way.
They are less willing to pay a lot of money for Catholic events, courses, and resources.
I was talking about this with a priest friend of mine in the UK. He said it was exactly the same there.
Because of this, organisers in the UK have to rely on subsidies from charitable bodies and the local church simply to cover their costs.
I have wondered if the difference in the willingness to pay is an expression of a wider culture in each country.
In the US, you are told not to rely on the government to save you, and that you should pay your own way for lots of things.
They pay lower taxes than in Australia, and the cost of living was (until recently) also lower there.
But in Australia and the UK, we’ve always had a very provident welfare state. This comes with higher taxes.
It also means that we’re used to getting something at a much lower price because a big faceless organisation has already covered most of the costs.
At a Catholic event in the UK or Australia, what you’re being asked to pay usually doesn’t even come close to covering costs.
It’s true that many people have no idea how much it costs to put on good, well-organised Catholic events. It’s a huge cost in time, energy, and resources.
Nothing is free for the organisers. Everything also has to be in place before you can start inviting people to attend.
You might invite a super-busy super-Catholic person to come from overseas and take time out of their schedule to speak to your audience. They need to be compensated for that.
In the interests of both good hospitality and safeguarding, you also can’t just put them on an inflatable mattress in your attic.
You need to cover their airfare and their meals and accommodation while they’re here.
It’s true that the wonders of Zoom have made it possible to have speakers who don’t need an airfare or accommodation.
But they still need to be compensated for having to get up at 1am in the morning to speak to us live.
Advertising costs money; printing costs money; lanyards cost money; all those little bobble things that go in a conference satchel cost money.
Even if we leave out the bobble things (which I wish we mostly would), hiring a venue costs money. Catering costs money.
Events also cost time. Many people who organise Catholic events are married with jobs and families of their own.
They carve out tiny bits of time to make phone calls, search for good deals, and find speakers.
We should be really grateful to people who make sacrifices to get a Catholic event up and running for us. They are taking a risk, often with their own money.
We should also train ourselves not to gripe so much about the cost of Catholic events.
If we want good Catholic speakers and ample snacks—and who doesn’t?—we really need to pay for them.
This is not wrong or sinful. And no one is going to make a fortune from profiteering off Catholic conference and event fees.
Have a think about it for New Year.
