A Christmas house visit is an important source of income for parishes. A priest who spent years making house visits in Bolesławiec as a vicar talks about the finances behind them.

According to the priest’s account, donations were substantial before the pandemic. Envelopes most often contained between PLN 50 and PLN 200, but higher amounts also occurred—even PLN 400.

“In January 2020, I collected around PLN 30,000 during the house visits,” says the priest. “The entire amount was then divided among the diocese, the parish and the priests.”

The division scheme was simple: the collected amount was divided into three major parts—one for the diocese, one for the parish’s needs and the third to be shared among the priests. If there were three priests in the parish, the third part was divided equally.

“After this division, it came to around PLN 10,000–11,000 per priest,” he adds.

For the house visit and “for the priest”

In practice, however, according to the account, this system was often circumvented. The faithful would frequently give two envelopes: one officially “for the house visit” and another directly for the priest, explicitly instructing that the money should not go to the parish priest.

“People would say directly not to give this money to the parish priest,” the priest recounts. “Sometimes they would even place it straight into my hand and tell me to put it in my pocket.”

He claims that the faithful were perfectly aware of the way the money was divided and knew that a vicar received only a small part of the total sum—an estimated 10–12 percent of what was collected in a parish with three priests in total.

The parish priest decides

The key figure in the entire system is the parish priest. He manages the money intended “for the parish,” while the vicars—as the interviewee emphasizes—have no real control over how the funds are spent.

“A vicar does not know what happens with the parish’s share,” he says. “Those are the parish priest’s decisions.”

According to the priest’s account, the faithful’s fondness for or dislike of a particular parish priest had a real impact on the course of the house visits. There were cases when residents asked altar servers which priest would come, and if it was the parish priest, they declined to accept the visit. Times have changed: now the faithful themselves have to invite the priest and report it at the church sufficiently early.

The only chance to get money during the year

In rural areas, as the interviewee emphasizes, the house visit is sometimes the only time of year when a priest can genuinely supplement his budget.

“If a priest does not teach at a school, the house visit is his only injection of cash. It either lasts for the whole year or allows him to pay off his obligations,” he says.

The pandemic, social changes and people accepting house visits less frequently mean, however, that—as the priests themselves admit—these revenues are now considerably lower than they were just a few years ago.

We estimate that in 2026, parishes in Bolesławiec may collect around half a million zlotys.