Posted on 10/09/2011 1:19:05 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
On the one hand, bishops are not always very good at this. On the other, parishioners should acquaint themselves with reality. I know when I make a gift in support of the "fabric" of my parish, I am really making a gift. I forsake control utterly. and when I make a gift in support of the priory we are building it is the same thing, except that the Dominican province has control, not the bishop.
When you give and expect something in return, we call that a purchase. When you give and renounce all claim to what you have given or to any consideration, that's a gift.
I think giving is a good thing to do.
So why not meet in houses? Like the early Church did?
This is it and you may have misread the piece which states:
“Another myth is that the Vatican is ultra-wealthy, he said. The ANNUAL operating budget of the Vatican City State is $270 million, he said, comparing that with the annual operating budget of Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana which is $1.2 billion.
The Catholic Church in the United States collects $200 million a week, almost enough in a week to fund the Vatican for a year, he said.”
http://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/exploding-myths-about-the-vatican/
The Catholic Church in the US does not send the Vatican $200 million a week.
The article states that $200 million is enough to fund the Vatican for one year which if you go back to my post, is close to the amount of revenue from worldwide collection of Peter’s Pence, a little over $200million PER YEAR.
“So why not meet in houses?”
Because I don’t have enough chairs.
I apologize. I did misread the piece. And thank you for correcting it. It did seem a HUGE amount of money to be sending there when there are Catholic Churches here in desperate need of repair. Once again, please accept my apology.
O.K. THAT was funny! LOL!
..and yet the Vatican takes in $200 MILLION a week from the United States..Facts are not negotiable. smvoice may have been trying to be accurate, but not so much.
Veteran reporter debunks myths surrounding the Vatican
Another myth is that the Vatican is ultra-wealthy, he said. The annual operating budget of the Vatican City State is $270 million, he said, comparing that with the annual operating budget of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., which is $1.2 billion. The Catholic Church in the United States collects $200 million a week, almost enough to fund the Vatican for a year, he said.
Yes, and I’ve already apologized to Opus for my mistake.
Indeed, good for you.
Not sure, but the OP seems to me to be obsessed with all things Catholic, while saying little to nothing about his own faith. Something wierd about that. Also has appeared not to like it when people talk about him and not ping him.
You may not know that our little ones are at Mass with us. We do not have a “crying room” at our parish and our pastor is of the belief that the little ones are Christ’s own babies.
There is a crunching of cheerios or whatever crackers going on with them, the yells of “Wass dat, Daddy, wassdat?”
Cleaning the pews during the week can get interesting. ~and they are very gummy sometimes from gummy bears and other sticky candies.
We have a lot of babies and young children.
So no, not at my house!
My parish did meet in a house 50 years ago. It grew. We now number 3011 families — Catholic families — and over a thousand university students (latest number on students — it just bumped up over 100 more than in August) and that’s just those who take the trouble to register.
We have 6 masses a weekend, 7 if you count the church 20 miles away which the friars also serve. There are two other Catholic parishes in our city of 40k+. I don’t know their numbers but I do know the few times I’ve gone it was hard to get a seat.
Our parish is SRO on what we call the “last chance Mass” 5:15 Sunday PM and often at the 9:00 and the 11:30 Masses. Christmas and Easter are ridiculous. There are 72 large pews (it’s almost a “church-in-the-round”, sort of a church-in-the-’U’) and we’ve just commissioned another row of pews and benches around the back.
The new building is maybe 12 years old and the pews are already falling apart while we need a new floor in the meeting room of the education and office wing which is like 8 years old.
This Place is JUMPING! After Saturday AM Mass, Rosary, Morning Prayer, and confessions, there was a meeting of our “chapter” of Lay Dominicans. A choir was rehearsing, there were two weddings, and at least one other meeting going on.
So a house wouldn’t do it. We’ve got over 40 lay-lead ministries ranging from Bible studies, shut-in care, to helping our ‘companion parish’ in Haiti, which includes a church, a school and a feeding program. We hand-tie string rosaries (they don’t rattle) for Catholic troops in the CZ, we provide tutors and study materials for a local public elementary school, we go cook at the Salvation army and supply food to local food banks .... I could go on and on.
Nope, a house wouldn’t do any more.
And how many chairs were at the Loaves and Fishes? :)
Also...Of the Catholic schools that were left open how many of the students are Catholic? How many are non-Catholic? And...Of those who are not Catholic, how many later convert to Catholicism? Is the Catholic Church neglecting the evangelizing of the Catholic children living in the suburbs.
Were you aware that in Wichita, Kansas, that all Catholic children are offered a tuition-free Catholic K-12 education? If they can do this, why aren't other Catholic dioceses?
Finally....It is my opinion, for Christians of all denominations, that the **most** important mission field is one’s **own** children first. The next most important mission field is the children of their congregation. When those two areas are fully attended to then they can spend time and resources on other missionary work.
“This Place is JUMPING”
That is just it!
The Church, the building houses our FAMILY. The Church is my home. I am there meeting, praying, adoring several hours a week. Our church is not locked during the day. It is never locked during the day.
Mass begins at 7am and the church is open. It is locked after 9pm, but the Adorers who are in Chapel, open the door for the next hourly adorer and that goes on round the clock until 7am the next morning.
D00d! “There was much grass in the place, so the -people sat down.” Oh, wow!
And yours does sound like a jumpin' place! :)
I wish you’d note John after that statement because I really had a hard time wrapping my head around “Dood - there was much grass in that place..”
Yeah, it’s a weird day when I don’t make the 20 mile haul to my parish for something or other.
We don’t have “perpetual” adoration yet. We do one stretch from 8:00 Wed to 1700 Thu every week and we have adoration from Ash Wednesday to the Triduum Sacrum. But we’re not there yet.
God willing, I’m making life promises as a Dominican this January and there may be a move in my future. I’d like to spend some time helping sow and strengthen chapters of Lay Dominicans, especially in diocese with liberal bishops. We need to provide refuges for people who want to worship Jesus, and bases from which good teaching can be spread.
But if I DO move, I’m going to miss this place. We are building the first priory built in the US in 40+ years! At a large university! This could turn out to be important.
“God willing, I’m making life promises as a Dominican this January ...”
You will now be in my daily prayers for this intention. Thank you, what a great promise.
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