The above pictures has lately been doing rounds on facebook. Posted comments refer to injustice, hypocrisy, and of the Church not practising what it preaches.
It seems it has become a common trend to blame the Church for everything under the sun. Hitting at the Church is the new way of looking cool. But before joining the bandwagon of shares, likes and comments, let me try to analyze the points this photo is trying to make.
The first one: the Church is immensely rich. Well, it could be, but what do most of these riches constitute? Most of the Church's "riches" are fixed immovable assets, of which most are important human heritage. They can practically never be sold. Let's just say that the Pope sells all his adornments (provided anyone wants to buy them), maybe even Michelangelo's Pieta, and once we're at it , yes, maybe he should also sell the Sistine Chapel and have it converted to apartments. Then what? Apart from making UNESCO and the rest of humanity dead angry, and a billionaire happy at having the Pieta sitting in his yard, the poor will still be poor and the hungry would maybe be fed for one more day.
One may agree with the point of hypocrisy and leading by example. I mean, if the Church preaches poverty, Divine Providence, and charity, it should start by doing away with its material riches. If the Church is currently spending money on lavish clothing, gold ornaments and baroque sculptures, then it deserves this criticism. On the other hand though, many of these embroided robes and golden rings, like the ones shown in the photo, and other artistic artefacts, date back to somewhere between the 14th and 19th centuries, and are thus relics of different times, times when artists prided themselves in producing something for their Diocese, and times when the Church was wrongly more focused on its political influence and grandiose image than its pastoral role. But what would be the practical use of not displaying these items today and just keep them locked up somewhere? Would it help any cause? Is this really the cause of the world's injustice? Or is it corrupt Governments of Third World Countries, regimes which only the Church and its missionaries seem to have the guts to criticize?
So what actually is the ultimate purpose some people and this photo are trying to reach? Would the world be better off should the Church sell everything it owns, all its investments and all its heritage, liquidate itself off and give all its money to feed the poor? Will the world's famine problems be solved and would the world be more just, should the Church not exist anymore? Sometimes I get the nagging feeling that some of the people promoting such misleading propoganda don't really care about the poor at all, but are only after finding another reason to attack the Church. Even if that means cutting off the helping hand of many the world's poor, hungry, homeless and needy.
Yes, the Church has some soul-searching to do, but removing robes should be the least of its priorities.
Feel free to post your feedback here.
one wonders why in the photo no one placed mother theresa and pope john paul 2; is this another photo placed by the capitalists feeling the pressure on them from benedict's words and actions? Can no one undertstand that that young boy is ...the result of the colonialists robbing his ancestors' lands, changing the produce of this land, paying miserable prices and backing puppet governments that buy armaments instead of food?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your points about relics from a distant past completely. How about, however, the Church allocates the funds used to make priests who abuse children disappear and hamper the efforts of the law is used to, say, provide what the victim children need in their life ahead?
ReplyDeleteThis is the best article I've read in months!!!!!!! Well done and well said!!
ReplyDeleteWell done Mark!
ReplyDelete"Sometimes I get the nagging feeling that some of the people promoting such misleading propoganda don't really care about the poor at all, but are only after finding another reason to attack the Church" I have the same feeling too.... although I think the Church could maybe do more, however another thought also comes to mind.. if the Church didn't exist would all the missionaries exist?
ReplyDelete@MarkBiwwa: Yes, I agree, but as far as I know the Church has offered to pay any psychiatric care, social workers, or professional help they might need to improve their lives, am I right?
ReplyDelete@MC: Yes MC, that was the point of the last paragraph. Would the hungry, in the end, be better off if the Church closed down?
Prosit Mark - good ideas! enjoyed reading your blog. After all what I can say is that the Catholic Church through its people was always there for the needy and is doing something tangible.. better than other groups/countries/people who just sit, relax and criticize.,, tc
ReplyDeleteSome of the riches come from an era when the church had lost it's focus. now that it's supposed to have regained it's focus, it should do away with said riches. it should not sell them, but give them to the proper heritage institutions such as museums and the sort.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, the church remains a totalitarian political authority, anyway you see it.
@elton: And what would donating these riches to "proper heritage institutions" achieve? After all, the Church needs money to do its work. Why not use them herself?
ReplyDeleteWell said Mark Sammut. May I add Jesus' own word to this discussion.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Gospel according to John (Jn 12,1-8)
Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then Judas the Iscariot, one [of] his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages* and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
This is the Word of the Lord
Fr Ivan Scicluna O.Carm.