Supplements

archive ISSUE

diocesan cfo to reture july 1

Story and photo by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

“It’s time,” Bill Knapp said when he was asked why he would retire from his post as the diocese’s chief financial officer.

Knapp signed on in July 1998 to fill a post that had been vacant for eight months. Bishop Wilton Gregory, now archbishop in Atlanta, Ga., was the ordinary, and Msgr. James Margason was vicar general.

Retiring from his accounting firm to take the position, Knapp said the diocesan job “felt like a calling.”

Giving kudos to his predecessor, Phil Buettner, Knapp made a series of changes in the finance department, beginning with audits of diocesan agencies.

Agency audits had not been required previously, and he and the finance department began to perform internal audits of diocesan parishes.

The Catholic Community Foundation was set up during his time in the finance office. The foundation is a system for responsible investing excess funds of the diocese, parishes and agencies.

Starting from zero, the foundation now has 96 depositors with more than $23 million on deposit. The foundation consists of a board of directors with the chief financial officer and people from the diocese serving on it.

Of his 12 years with the diocese, Knapp said: “The people I worked with energized and really inspired me, especially the priests and the people of the parishes.”

Now, Knapp said his journey will lead him to spend more time with his grandchildren, travel with his wife, Irma, and both expect to volunteer their time and talents at diocesan agencies.

As he leaves, Knapp said he would like to see the diocese do more outreach to the parishes, train new priests more in light of their administrative duties in parishes.

“We need to get out into the parishes to let them know the diocese cares about them.”