I don’t mean this to sound curmudgeonly or to demean what other people are doing, but just to make a larger point. Yesterday, the Archdiocese of Boston announced what it had been doing as part of hurricane relief for the Gulf Coast. The list consists of all good things, but as I read I was struck by what wasn’t listed. See if you can figure out what that is:
The following is a brief, but significant, summary of what has been done thus far:
The Archdiocese through its collection for Catholic Charities USA is sending all funds collected to the relief of victims of the hurricane. This amounts to direct assistance to those in need. Such assistance at this time is absolutely the best help we can provide.
The Archbishop will make some presently unused buildings in the Archdiocese available for transitional housing for victims of the hurricane. These facilities will be available for individuals and families now housed at the Cape and for others who may be sent to us through Catholic Charities USA.
Caritas Christi has made doctors and nurses available to the evacuees at Camp Edwards on the Cape.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese is participating in an ecumenical effort to link congregations with the needs of those who have come to Massachusetts. Details about this program will be made available to parishes as soon as they are finalized.
Catholic Charities is providing professional assistance of counseling, social services and translations, as these are needed at Camp Edwards. Boston Catholic Charities will also make its staff resources available to Catholic dioceses in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama as needed.
Before I read the posting, I was certain what the answer to your rhetorical question would be, Dom. It’s tacitly giving in to view of the secular society that, unless it’s material it doesn’t really exist.
While we, as Catholics individually and corporately, KNOW instinctively what we should do, and although we DO immediately pray and offer Holy Mass for people caught in such circumstances as Katrina brought to the people of the Gulf Coast, it’s almost as if we’re afraid to acknowledge that our pray and sacrifice is on a par with the material efforts of the Red Cross or FEMA. We sell our birthright for a mess of pottage.
By the way, since when did the Salvation Army get a “pass” from the venom directed at religious groups? For some reason, people seem to forget that they’re definitely a religious outfit; they preach their own gospel and (at least until recently) demanded that those they helped accept that gospel. If we Catholics placed the same restrictions on our aid, we’d never hear the end of it.
I think the Salvation Army gets a pass becuase they don’t “threaten” anybody. No-one cares about what the Methodists think or what the Quakers think—they’re nonentities as far as the media is concerned but Catholics and to a lesser extent, Baptists bother them.
The Archdiocese of Boston is offering nothing Catholic. Is that what’s missing?
Oh, Monica, didn’t you hear, they don’t do that anymore. They are ashamed of how it looks. Out in broad daylight and everything.
That was my guess, too. No prayers. No special intentions. Classic liberal busy bodies, they are materialists through and through just like their socialist/communist big brothers.
I blogged on this same thing with respect to the call for money by my own Cardinal Egan. There’s been no call yet for a special day of prayer or sacrifice beyond the donation of money. Could it hurt to make such a call?