I'll be honest. My husband and I don't support any diocesan collections these days. Frankly, we didn't even give to the Haitian Relief collection through the Church. We did some research and contributed to a different group. I just don't trust the bishops any more to use our money in any responsible and accountable way. Check out all the posts on this blog about the USCCB scandals, the CCHD scandals, etc. ad nauseum and you'll get the picture. Oh we give to the Church and to charity, an absolute obligation, but in our own way: monthly donations to the Poor Clares, our parish development fund, and a crisis pregnancy center; donations to activist pro-life politicians (yes, I consider that charity for the unborn); and other periodic donations to solid Catholic colleges and individual ministries we find trustworthy. I don't find the diocese trustworthy. When the Virginia Catholic Conference uses its Catholic Advocacy Day to lobby on bills about immigration, the death penalty, and scholarships for the poor, but takes a neutral position on a bill supporting personhood for the preborn (HB 112) - well - they just don't deserve either my trust or my money.
With regard to the BLA here in Arlington, I have a lot of questions. First of all, why do we have to have a professional fundraiser who eats up a significant chunk of the contributions, not to mention the cost of the slick insterts in the diocesan paper, the multiple mailings, and the handouts in church. A few years ago, a priest in the diocese serving as a parochial administrator met his church's goal for the bishops' capital campaign. (Can't recall the name of it at the moment - there's always some slick slogan.) He was punished by being demoted back to an assistant pastor position because he didn't do it according to the fundraiser's manual. If the CEO of Ford treated an effective employee that way, well, it certainly wouldn't be very smart. But I suppose the priest showed that all that money going to the fundraiser was unnecessary when a hard-working, beloved priest could just ask and the people would open their pocketbooks and meet the goal.
But the thing that bothers me most about the BLA is using the Mass to manipulate people into pledging. We started today with an audiotaped homily from the bishop. (Isn't a recorded homily a liturgical abuse? I know several priests who won't play the recording. Good for them.) After that the pastor went to the pulpit and led the people in the pew giving detailed instructions on filling out the pledge card. "Now write your name and address on the proper line. Now select the amount you want to give and check the box, etc. etc." We did not take the card and neither did the couple sitting next to us. Somehow I can't see St. Jean Vianney, the patron of parish priests, using his homily time that way. But in many places the bishops are quicker to serve the Almighty Dollar than Almighty God. And God help the parish priest who disobeys as did the administrator I mentioned previously. (Actually, using the function of parochial administrator as a trial position for pastor is NOT in accordance with its purpose in canon law. cc. 538-541; 549)
I'm sorry not to be able to contribute directly to the diocese, but I don't think our money is being well used. Spending over a million dollars renovating the convent at St. Thomas More to fix up a luxury mansion for the bishop's house is hard to square with the spirit of poverty that should imbue the life of any cleric. I know bishops and diocesan priests don't take vows of poverty, but where is the spirit of voluntary sacrifice and voluntary simplicity that illustrates the life of even the wealthiest saints? And what's with tripling the size of many offices at the chancery since Bishop Loverde came? And why is the chancery door locked with two receptionists on buzzer duty?
Frankly, I'm sick of bloated church bureaucracies with locked doors (like the USCCB offices in Washington, D.C.) where the people have to run the gauntlet to get anywhere near chancery administrators. I've reached the point, after addressing many scandals and getting a regular run-around, that I believe some employees are just there to provide cover. Why does a bishop need a PR person and speechwriters? There is something fundamentally wrong with the way things are going in the Catholic Church in the U.S. these days. Many dioceses operate more and more like the White House rather than God's house.
Which means we need to pray hard for poor Holy Mother Church, the battered bride of Christ, whose beauty has been so disfigured by so many with the responsibility to protect and defend her.
Lent is a good time to spiritually reflect on how to respond to problems in the Church. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are important components of the preparation leading up to Easter. But may I suggest you be spiritually smart about your almsgiving. If your bishop is still supporting the CCHD and other questionable fundraising programs that advance abortion and same-sex marriage, cut him off. It's too much like giving clean needles to a drug addict. But don't just cut off the money. Send a lovely letter assuring him of your prayers and tell him where you're sending your money instead.
Is the Bishop's Lenten Appeal really funding the CCHD and NCCB? I want to know. I pledged $1500 last year.
ReplyDeleteThe CCHD is a separate collection. As for the USCCB, the dioceses are assessed a tax I believe. That may come out of the regular operating funds from the parish tax. But, ultimately, all the money comes form the same place, the pockets of the people in the pews. The fact that the bishops have been funding all this evil gives me zero confidence in their administration. And if the national bureaucracy is doing it, what do you think the chances are that some of the same kinds of things are being done at the local level?
ReplyDeleteRight on!
ReplyDeleteMP
How would I find out what legislation my Bishop (Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York) is lobbying for?
ReplyDeleteGo to the website of the New York Catholic Conference.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nyscatholic.org/pages/home/home.asp
Glad to see some efforts to defund them. I give to the Franciscan friars.
ReplyDeleteThese National Episcopal Conferences forged under Pacelli as secretary of State and later as Pius XII, and which were mass produced under John XXIII and Paul VI have to be abolished. These bureaucracies are the bane of the Church. They cannot reform themselves….. and the liberal bishops won’t abolish them either.
ReplyDeleteR
Thanks a lot MaryAnn for helping get the info out on the VCC and Bob Marshall and his personhood bill.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteBut also notice that it was the Republican Party that actually deep-sixed Bob Marshall's bill, just like they have for years whenever any substantial pro-life legislation is offered. There were 4 Republicans on the sub-committee, 3 Democrats, and the vote was 5-2 against the pro-life legislation. This duplicity has been going on for years in the General Assembly. Get the pro-life rubes to vote Republican, and then deep-six any significant legislation by making sure that every important committee is controlled by a pro-abort Republican. It was the same in the Senate when the Republicans controlled it, and had Russ Potts as chairman of the Health and Education Committee. Even after he left the Republican Party and ran against the Party nominee for governor, they left him as chairman of the committee!!!! thus assuring for years that no pro-life legislation would ever see the light of day. And let's not forget how they stabbed Mike Farris in the back when he was the Party nominee for lieutenant governor and they ran another Republican as an independent so that the Democrat won. Of course, they'll take your vote on election day. I bet behind closed doors they laugh their heads off at how gullible and naive the pro-life voters are.
What suckers we are!
This is why, in addition to not giving money to the diocese, I also don't support the Republican Party. I don't give them any money and I don't vote for any of their candidates unless they are 100% pro-life in word and deed. And I mean 100%. The Republican party is not pro-life, never has been, and never will be. It's time for us rubes to quite voting for them. It's time for us to start a new First Party and let the Republicans sink into third party status where they belong.
Thanks for all the great work you do!
Mark
Mary Ann,
ReplyDeleteAs someone who used to work in the Arlington Diocese, your comments are factually correct. I, too, give money directly to specific causes...the building fund for your parish (100% goes to the parish). When you put $$$ in the regular Sunday collection, 8% of that $$$ goes to the diocese to support things like their accounting, fund raising offices.
A long-time follower of Les Femmes
I could not agree with you more. Whereas, I understand that withholding donations hurts some of the excellent programs that are being funded, Bishops need to understand that when they use our money for immoral or unethical practices they will be hurt by it. As Governor Keating said, "We have to use the 'power of the purse.' "
ReplyDeleteGod Bless you for keeping all of us informed.
There are so many Catholic needs worldwide that I am not ashamed to cut down on local donations. Christ needs to be preached everywhere. I love supporting a Catholic radio station in Nome, Alaska. Tony
ReplyDeleteI have a question. I have supported the Bishop's Lenten Appeal in the past primarily because it is supposed to be the major means by which our seminarians and diaconate candidates are supported in their formation programs. If I do not give to the BLA, how will I still be able to support these programs? We NEED Priests, and Deacons to assist them.
ReplyDeleteHow about supporting the seminary directly? Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, MD and St. Charles in Philadelphia are two seminaries used by our diocese that have good reputations. Another solid seminary is Our Lady of Guadalupe in Nebraska which trains priests for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter who only say the Tridentine Mass. These men will be missionaries around the country bringing back the ancient liturgy which nurtered our ancestors in the faith.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I visited St. Michael's Abbey in southern California a few years ago which is a Norbertine Abbey and seminary. We were edified by the young seminarians we met there. http://abbeynews.net/Abbey-Vocations-Info.html
Perhaps readers have other suggestions. You don't have to use the BLA as a middleman.
Who does the "Virginia Catholic Conference" really represent other than its owners, namely, the two persons who are the Bishop of Richmond and the Bishop of Arlington? I have read of the positions that the Conference's lobbyists have advanced to the Legislature and I disagree with most of them. Their Excellencies have never asked my opinion and they have never even tried to persuade me to theirs. Catholics are perfectly free to disagree that the Welfare State favored by our Bishops is the proper policy.
ReplyDeleteToday, Feb. 12, 2012, we had a video for the archbishop's appeal as you described. We had our deacon instuct us line by line how to fill out the card. It is hard to believe this is happening all over America at the Masses in lieu of the homily. We did not give to the appeal this year or the last 2 years because of the CCHD etc. I hope you write about it again in 2012. This seems like an abuse of the pulpit. I wonder if this is happening at all the Masses?
ReplyDeleteThe BLA sermons are nearly driving me away from the Church, though I retain my faith in God, but not the Bishop. It feels like a cult, or even worse, like the Socialist dictatorship of Obama, with the Bishop forcing the priests to walk the parishioners hand by hand to write the BLA forms out DURING THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF MASS! this is at least an abuse of the liturgy.
ReplyDeleteToday, February 19, 2012, is the
ReplyDelete2nd Sunday in a row we were held captive in the pews of our parish to listen to the Archbishop of Atlanta's Appeal through our Deacon.
Collections must be down.