BOSTON -- Professionals from dioceses throughout the country gathered in Boston for the Diocesan Financial Management Conference held from Sept. 8 through Sept. 11 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.

Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley delivered a keynote address Sept. 8, Bishop Robert F. Hennessey celebrated a Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for guests, and Father Paul Soper, director of the Office of Pastoral Planning, participated in a breakout session during the conference.

About a dozen members of the Finance Office and the Parish Services Office of the Archdiocese of Boston joined the approximately 325 other financial professionals at the conference.

"It was a well-attended conference with diocesan fiscal leaders from all over the country -- and even a few folks from outside the country, such as the Bahamas. So, it is a great opportunity to share information and learn from folks that have positions and challenges similar to what we are facing in the archdiocese," Maureen Donnelly Creedon, finance director of the Archdiocese of Boston, said.

Topics addressed during the conference included the need for effective internal audits, controlling expenses and expenditures, and the lives of priests and pastors as diocesan and archdiocesan demographics and structures change.

"I found the presentations to be very relevant to what is going on in the Church today, and what finance folks are facing within their respective diocese," Creedon said.

Creedon said large and small dioceses -- including mission dioceses -- were represented at the conference.

She said it provided "very varied and broad representation" of the diocesan and archdiocesan experiences throughout the United States and other parts of the world represented at the conference.