Archbishop Chaput in Philadelphia knows he faces some very bad publicity in the spring when a trial for the archdiocese’s failure to protect children commences.
Chaput in a letter that is to be read this weekend in all churches in Philadelphia is announcing his strategy: to protect the treasures of the Church, not, as was said in apostolic times, the poor, but cash and other liquid assets. Chaput concludes his letter he concludes:
Finally, the resources of the Church do not belong to the bishops or the clergy; they belong to the entire Catholic people, including the faithful generations who came before us. The Church is a community of faith alive in the present but also connected across the years through time. The Church holds her resources in stewardship for the whole Catholic community, to carry out our shared apostolic mission as believers in Jesus Christ. This means that as archbishop, I have the duty not just to defend those limited resources, but also to ensure that the Church uses them with maximum care and prudence; to maximum effect; and with proper reporting and accountability.
But the bishops and the clergy have always behaved as if the resources of the Church belonged to them. The bishops have absolute control and no accountability; the laity have no say in the finances of the church. Their only duty is to cough up.
Archbishop Chaput waxes eloquent informing us that he is a stewart of the people’s money. Sure he is. How much of the people’s money did he spend while he fought against the Colorado legislation that would have extended the statute of limitations for folks who were raped as children by his priests? How much money does he spend to deny holy communion to pro choice catholics while he NEVER suggests denying communion to his child raping colleagues?
Just wondering.
AW
There would be enough money for all the schools and enough people for all the parishes if there were faith. That the faith is weak is the clergy’s fault. The Archbishop would do better to stir up the faith of his people than to trim the Church back in response to the lack of faith.
“But the bishops and the clergy have always behaved as if the resources of the Church belonged to them”
Exactly ! Why the laity is not in charge of the money in the local parish?
right on!
Getting people to go back to church (and start contributing) means giving them a place to connect and belong. That used to be the schools and the community they fostered. I have been attending the same parish for 5 years and most Sundays have never understood but a few words of the sermon of a foreign priest, and everyone runs for their cars afterward (as we must stay silent in Church).
It seems to me the only people who show up are older people afraid of hell or the more well-heeled 30+ somethings with kids in the school who need to put money in the basket to get the school discount. There are no poor people, people of color, handicapped or elderly in the pews. It makes for a pretty heavy, dull Sunday “celebration.”despite the best efforts of a way-off-key folk group who still stands on the altar even after all the renovations have been done to comply with the new guidelines. The new edition doesn’t make for any more of a holy atmosphere either.
One funny thing – the new royal blue French brocade upholstery on the pew seats has the theme of crosses surrounded by 4 satyrs heads (horns, beards and all) with what appears to be a snake çoming out of their mouths – eating their own tails – a common theme in early 17th century classics-influenced church decorations (and theosophy as far as the snake symbol).
The entire wall behind the now-centered tabernacle is gold lamee. Mary’s statue has been replaced with Jesus, who I thought was Mary with a beard because they used the same 50s style old statue that looks effeminate and anorexic. Some interior designer is laughing up his sleeve – making money when the liberals got in and now making a killing off the conservative turn.
The Church has destroyed a vast number of parishes over the years and now is crying foul that there’s no money. We used to have four parishes in town and three schools. The diocese and its priests have run everything into the ground. The nuns aren’t very impressive, either. Someday the whole farce will come to an end but there won’t be any money left to pay these bums’ pensions.
I hire an administrator to run that end of things. The diocese wants me to have the final word on major expenses, but these are made only after I consult the Finance Council. An increasing number of priests are letting go of the “business end” of parish life, as they should. I wait to see what will occur at diocesan levels.
There does seem to be something crazy about having men with no training in business and finance running the huge financial concerns modern dioceses are (not to mention taking men with little parish experience, or knowledge of personel management, and making them bishops!).
Thankfully, the Church is much more than the hierarchy, just as a country is more than its government. For example, Italy is a country with a very attractive culture, beautiful language, venerable traditions and wonderful people. It’s also been, as Italians admit, very badly governed and riddled with corruption. I lived and studied in Italy and would move there for another extended stay in a heartbeat. I love the country, but have no illusions about its dark side. I love the Church, but also have no illusions about her skeletons and rot.
Chaput can say whatever he wants, however eloquently he wants. Real leadership consists of deeds, not words. Let’s see how Chaput acts to implement his agenda…especially how he deals with opposition.
Adversity reveals a man to himself, it is said. I suspect Chaput is going to get a long, hard lesson.
If the Catholic Church were a secular monarchy, the revolution would have started a looooonng time ago.
Joseph, the revolution began at least 1,000 years ago when Eastern Christians told the pope he didn’t have the authority to change the creed everyone had agreed on more than six centuries before. It deepened when Father Martin Luther nailed his thesis to the cathedral door. In both cases, if papal power had been exercised in a better and more reasonable way, the revolutions might not have occured, and the Christian family would still have visible unity.
I don’t follow the logic of the post or most of the comments. +Chaput just arrived in the messed up diocese; so he can’t possibly be responsible for the sins of prior years. I take it he’s fired the previous set of lawyers, which is likely a good and significant sign of improvement.
Nor is it clear to me why anyone would imagine the laity would be wonderful stewards of resources? Because Americans, including Catholics, have in recent years been paragons of thrift? have handled their single largest purchases (houses) well? have been careful to put aside money for their retirement?
As for generosity, American Catholics in general are far greedier with their money than Protestants, Jews, Mormons, and most every other flavor of U.S. religion. Nor are they generous enough with their time to bother to attend Mass. Nor are they generous enough with their lives to have more children than other Americans. Nor do they exercise enough self-discipline to abort their children at a lower rate than other Americans.
I don’t begrudge anyone lots of griping about bishops, but don’t us layfolk give plenty of cause for acid criticism too?
Joseph, I think it did. It was called theProtestant Reformation. Martin Luther was right!
Scott W., I stand by what I said because, though it refers specifically to Chaput, it speaks to a fundamental condition of human nature.
Besides, I don’t trust the man, and I had that feeling long before he became Philadelphia’s archbishop. Anyone who equates Supreme Court Justice Scalia with Frances Kissling, the founder and head of Catholics For A Free Choice (pro-abortion group) either is tremendously ignorant or excessively ambitious. Either way, he would be profoundly irresponsible.
Read http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=1463
Here’s the “money” section:
But the most idiotic opinion came from Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, a favorite of conservative Catholics. In response to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s thoughtful disagreement with the church’s revisionist stance, published in First Things in 2002, Chaput stated:
“When Catholic Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia publicly disputes church teaching on the death penalty, the message he sends is not all that different from Frances Kissling disputing what the church teaches about abortion,… the impulse to pick and choose what we’re going to accept is exactly the same kind of ‘cafeteria Catholicism’ in both cases.”
Frances Kissling is a former nun who leads Catholics for a Free Choice, which advocates legalized abortion.
One would think that a priest who successfully ran a large parish would be a natural choice for bishop. Instead, one of the powerful cardinal’s golden boys gets picked and runs the diocese into the ground.
Beth, Martin Luther was right about somethings, getting rid of the sale of indulgences, emphasis on justification by faith, which I consider Biblical, and restoring Holy Matrimony to the clergy are his main contributions. But, he turned into an anti-Semite when he could not persuade the Jews around him to convert to his form of Christianity. He did not, to my knowledge, have anyone judicially murdered for reasons of faith.
The Swiss Reformers are my favorites, including John Calvin. Let me say emphatically that John Calvin did not order the execution of Michael Servetus because he did not have any kind of civil power. Servetus’ execution was ordered by the elected City Council of Geneva, and Calvin’s supporters on that council voted against the execution. Sometimes a little knowledge of historical facts changes our long held stereotypes. Nonetheless, Calvin did not do enough to protest this execution. And, Calvin was very authoritarian, but probably no more authoritarian than any bishop of that time period.
My favorites are Heinrich Bullinger and Sebastian Castellio. The names of the other Swiss Reformers and their contributions to Western Civilization, are generally known only to historians of the Reformation.
Layfolks do not portend to save souls, Scott. Nor do they daily introduce evil into the sacred by allowing or becoming pedophile priests themselves while pretending to dispense sacraments. Roman catholic hierarchy have had a heyday of sexuall corruption at the faithful’s expense. It is no small wonder why the churches are empty.
Aw