At the height of the Scandal in Boston, and especially during tense settlement negotiations last year, many of the city’s editorial columnists expressed the similar sentiment that the Church should sell whatever property it had to in order to pay off the lawyers and the victims. Now those very same columnists are writing in their newspapers about awful and evil the Church is for selling off people’s spiritual homes and how children and old people are gathered on the steps of their parishes and schools, devastated and crying.
I detect a whiff of hypocrisy.
Only a whiff?? ;o)
And it’s not just from journalists, either. If I hear one more of my marginally Catholic acquaintances—the ones who darken the door of the church for Midnight Mass, weddings, and funerals only, and who refuse to drop money into the plate because it’s their personal method of shaking their metaphorical fist in the face of the archdiocese for refusing to consider the ordination of women/gay marriage/the scandal/whatever—my eyes will roll to the point of retinal detachment.
Funny thing is, I don’t know a single person who actually attends Mass regularly and who supports their parish with time AND money, who’s overly upset.
Feh.
Maybe the “problem” is that the Archdiocese has promised the funds from sold-off properties will not go to abuse settlements, but rather will go to pay off the debts of closed parishes, and then be used for the good of existing parishes.
Using the goods of the Church for the good of the Church is bad, apparently. OTOH, devoting it to abuse settlements—and giving a third of the money to trial lawyers—would be a fine thing.
Hi Jen S. –
You know – a lot of people this week are losing their spiritual homes – and it is normal to feel sadness in that – and to try to understand why the Church has come to this state. And also – would like to point out that there is a great difference between withholding money to a parish (or diocese) to protest the ordination of women, gay marriage, or the pederasty scandal. One protests an honest understanding of the Church; one protests a Godly moral and natural law truth (and thus embraces sin); one protests extreme malfeasance and evil on the part of those leading our Church!
Sinner, I’m perfectly aware of the differences between the two. However, of those I mentioned, they do tend to lump it all together. Well, when they bother to show up at church at all, that is. ;o)