ARTICLES

If This is Poverty...

Despite Vow, Local Nun Makes Six Figures

BY ROBERT KUMPEL

Catholic Charities of San Diego, located Downtown at Fourth and Cedar, provides services for children and adults. The president and executive director of Catholic Charities of San Diego is Sister RayMonda DuVall. DuVall, 61, like all members of her order, the Community of the Holy Spirit, took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. However, public records call the first of those vows into question.

As a non-profit agency, Catholic Charities of San Diego must file a federal 990 tax form every year. The latest form available, for 2003-2004, indicates on page 33 that Sister RayMonda received $94,786 in salary for that year. Sister RayMonda also received $8,766 in employee benefits and had an expense account of $2400.

Sister RayMonda was not the only local Catholic Charities employee to earn a substantial salary, although she is the highest paid and the only administrator who is a nun. Robert J. Moser, the deputy director, earned $85,544. Ann M. Thomas, the finance director, was paid $73,969. Dr. Michael McKay, director of refugee services, had a salary of $65,147. Martha Ranson, director of homeless women's services, was paid $64,889, and Sean Minoque director of family services, earned $62,355. In all, Catholic Charities paid 13 employees salaries above $50,000. The total of all salaries and wages for Sister RayMonda and her five highest paid employees was $452,690. Catholic Charities of San Diego also paid Network Vigilance of Miramar $62,392 for technical support.

Perhaps more interesting than the salaries of its directors, was the charity's dependence upon the government. The agency's total income was listed at $16,277,463. Under "contributions, gifts, grants and similar amounts received," the 990 form reveals that $2,235,752 of those contributions was from "direct public support" (donations given to the charity directly), and $764,314 was from indirect public support (provided through another agency). However, $11,524,439 of their income was from government grants, indicating that the Catholic Charities of San Diego functions largely as a distributor of government money instead of a distributor of Catholic generosity.

Among the services provided by the group are emergency services to provide food, clothing, shelter, and transportation services to individuals and families. Clinical counseling services, senior services, foster care, adoption services, and non-residential support services for single pregnant women are also offered. The flagship service that Catholic Charities is most noted for, however, is refugee and immigrant services. They assist newly arrived refugees in finding housing and obtaining health services, and they operate Casa San Juan, a shelter for male minors and adult women with children who are in the custody of the United States Marshall or the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Sister RayMonda's expertise in immigrant and refugee issues was recognized in July of 2003, when she addressed the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to discuss migration and refugee Services.

The largest expenditure in services for 2003-2004 was $4,846,678 for refugee resettlement services, a program that provides case management, employment, health screening, and support services for refugees. The second largest program expenditure was $2,549,228 for senior services. The third highest services expenditure was $1,646,893 for family services, which included support services for parenting skills and vocational training. Homeless women's services came in a close fourth at $1,105,698. The lowest specified service expenditure was $352,777 for senior services.

While Catholic Charities operated with $16.2 million of income for fiscal year 2004, the disparity of how the income was spent becomes more apparent when looking at the 990 form for another Church based charity, the San Diego Catholic Worker. The Catholic Worker describes its mandate as twofold: "to minister to the needs of society's forgotten people, and to challenge and offer alternatives to the attitudes, institutions, and structures that create and perpetuate suffering and violence. Following Christ's example, we also believe it is our duty to spread the word of our work and provide others with the opportunity to serve. The San Diego Catholic Worker will achieve its goals by the grace of God and by working together to bring about a world of peace and justice as envisioned by our founders, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin."

The Catholic Worker operates on a much smaller budget than Catholic Charities of San Diego, with $47,983 of income revenue, and $44,684 of the total coming from contributions and grants. Its largest service expenditure was $26,134 serving meals to the homeless and needy. $24,475 was spent on outreach and support for "social initiatives to improve the care and well-being of the local community. Catholic Worker spent $5,195 to provide clothing to the homeless and needy, totaling service expenditures at $55,804. The Catholic Worker's two directors, Michael Jennings and Michael Flaningam, received no salary. Neither did its treasurer, Jackie Smith. So while no salaries were paid at The Catholic Worker, they spent more than 100% of their income on service expenditures. At Catholic Charities, more than $728, 644 was paid in management salaries and wages alone, while $13,762,406 was spent in service expenditures.

So where does Sister RayMonda's sizeable salary go? According to one diocesan priest, the normal procedure for salaried nuns is that the salary is paid directly to the order. Her religious order, the Community of the Holy Spirit, was founded in 1970. Its "mother house" is an apartment on Rancho Mission Road in Mission Valley, its nuns live their own residences scattered throughout the city. Sister RayMonda lives in an apartment on Columbia Street in Middletown. The current acting superior, Sister Mary Jo Ander son, says that, like all mainstream religious orders, the Holy Spirit sisters take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. But she says that Sister RayMonda's salary does not go to the order. "We have stipulations ... we pay income tax and we contribute to the well-being of the order, making each sister responsible for her own expenses and her own retirement. All of our sisters get their own paychecks. Then they pay income tax and a contribution to the order."

When asked if Sister RayMonda's contribution was fixed at a percentage, Sister Mary Jo grew reticent. "I think that's personal, and I'm not going to share that with you."

Sister RayMonda did not return phone calls.

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