I agree. I used to donate to one overseas —can’t remember which one but highly recommended and then it came out that they support abortion and birth control. Aaa argh. Aid to the Church in Need seems to pass muster. I give to them for the suffering Church in the Middle East.
I gave that breakdown to explain to DeGaulle how withholding money isn't an easy decision because we need our priests and we need our churches. Our Christmas and Easter dues are separate from the collections at Mass. There's a special envelope for them, and I think they may be the only collections going straight to the priests in the parish. It may be different in his diocese. We also have a monthly church gate collection for SVP. I would be sickened, too, to think that my money had been used for the infamous beach house. Maybe the solution would be to reduce your donation to the parish by, say, 90% until you see evidence that the McCarrick stuff is being investigated. You can save the rest and make up the difference when you start seeing results.
The priests aren't going to go away because we hold back on donations. We just need to show the hierarchy that we are upset. Hopefully as soon as the money flow dries up to a point where it affects normal Church functioning the local bishops will then put pressure on Rome. They will not start closing parishes and dismissing priests because collections are short over this. Unfortunately praying and withholding money are just about the only things the laity can do.
I was impressed by some of the EWTN programmes about Aid to the Church in Need and sent them a couple of donations. What holds me back from making it a regular donation is whether funds are channeled through the Vatican. The thought of one of the Pope's Jesuit cronies deciding who should get my money doesn't sit well with me. I'm a bit ashamed of making such a big deal out of what will be a very small donation. Nevertheless, I wouldn't give a penny to anything with a Fr. Spadaro or Fr. Martin type connected to it. I've been impressed by a few articles in First Things written by Fr. Ben Kiely. Fr. Kiely has set up a charity to help Christians in the ME. It's called Nasarean.org: http://www.nasarean.org/our-story There's a link to Aid to the Church in Need on Nasarean's website, so maybe they're affiliated?
I live in New York State... the individual parishes in my diocese have money counters at each parish. On Monday mornings, they sit as a group and count the money from the weekend collections and present the deposit to the book keeper of the parish who will then in turn make a deposit at the local bank. The envelop itself never makes it to the Bishop or their office. Probably the only ones who will see these notes are the parishioners who are the counters. So at best, the individual priest at the parish might see the note if they show it to him.. I just wonder how many brave enough pastors will send them on to the Bishop.
Yes, but there is a trickle-up effect. If the money starts coming up less each week and they have a pile of these notes stating why, they will certainly tell their priests and if enough parishes do the same thing the bishop will definitely know why he is not receiving the normal amounts of money he is counting on.
I agree with you in theory, but you don't know what spin they will put on it. They (the Bishops) could say the lack of funds are due to the fact that people are leaving the church. Just another reason to close some more churches. People can argue that if they don't don't have people in the pews, then they are out of business. Not necessarily true. These priests don't care, they are in it for themselves,not the long term or future of the church. They have no moral compass. With the priest shortage the way it is, they will always have a position. It is very sad.. yes money and power is what drives these men
I don't think they will put any spin on it. Nobody really cares what the weekly Church contributions are. But they do! The Church actually operates on a very thin budget. Most people think that the Catholic Church is rolling in money, but this just isn't so. There is a lot coming in, but there is a lot going out. That is why they are closing Churches because they can't afford to pay the bills and keep them open. If there is a sudden drop in projected income the bishops will have to make it up somehow. Probably with an extra collection. If that turns up nothing then they are in trouble. By the way I am not saying all priests or bishops are bad or corrupt. In fact I think most of them are good people who are mostly just concerned with the day to day running of the parish. My main point was that we need to do something and hitting them in the money will make a bigger difference than petition after petition. That method has proven not to work very well, though we have to keep that up too. The United States Catholic businessmen's association (I forget the exact name) announced recently that they will cease their contributions to Peter's Pence. They apparently make up a hefty amount of the contributions to that fund. That struck home at the Vatican. I saw several stories about it making waves. They said something to effect that the contributions will resume when action is taken. Something must be done. It is too bad that money is the best motivator, but it very well may be.
The problem here seems to be that the hierarchy are either so out of touch that they do not understand the outrage of the average Catholic or they just don't care. Either option is bad. I do not know what is taking place in their heads, but the appearance of what is going on is akin to the people begging for an investigation so their children can be protected and the Vatican prelates sitting in their Roman towers saying "Let them eat cake!" That won't end well.
