Burn of the Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
He says this like there’s a limit to government spending.
It’s not that I mind the government giving money to The Church so much, it’s that I don’t want The Church taking government money. The stuff is addictive … and all those pesky strings!!
Great reply, Donald. The whole point, IMO, is that the money should never have been spent by the government in the first place, not to mention that much of it has been spent on things the Church has always taught are gravely disordered, and doled out with little or no serious discernment. Good Father needs to start paying attention.
One of these days, the modern Church must remember that there are spiritual works of mercy as well as corporal works of mercy.
More to the point here, the government and other organizations have little to do with the spiritual works of mercy. Thus if the church focus on the corporal and neglects the spiritual, who will focus on the spiritual?
Maybe the Church should stop outsourcing it’s charitable responsibilities to the state and working for the same state as a subcontractor.
I see. If we can spend the $$ then it’s okay. Our assisting the human traffic train is better than a cartel…..or is it.
To hear Senator Cruz tell it, no one comes across the southern border illegally without a cartel getting their cut.
Separation of Church and State in the USA. No tax on church property supposedly. I’ve heard that church owned property has to be used for a religious purpose, otherwise it is taxed.
“We’re here from the diocese and here to help you”…Our mission has property that the diocese picked out for us 18 years ago, and had the mission purchase using up the new church building fund. Now after a too late survey the mission finds itself saddled with over priced acres that look like woods but are actually marsh and farm land that does not perk for building.
Ten years later the mission found a small farm not too far from the church cemetery. The renovated farmhouse is a rectory and office. Three years ago a beautiful church was built on the farm. It is surrounded by fields that are cultivated. However our friends at the diocese will not allow the mission to have a signed contract with a local farmer. Leases on good farm land go from $60 to $110 per acre. The mission still owns the marsh and farm land and is taxed. The diocese does not want that land sold. It is under cultivation by the same slick farmer. Needless to say,
the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal envelopes if even used the checks are small.
I read through a lot of the replies to this post over the weekend, along with Father’s replies. He’s apparently one of those who always counters with, “Where’s the evidence? What proof do you have that specifically indicates misspent moneys? etc.” A couple of the replies gave him evidence of dubious transactions and his counter–predictable as the sunrise–was, “That article doesn’t provide any evidence.” In the end, he was ratio’d pretty hard…which was gratifying.
Guess what I was trying to say in my earlier rant is that most of our Church hierarchy and their staffs cannot be trusted in spiritual matters or corporal. Lots of greed, ignorance, etc.
Fr Totleben O.P. seems content to do Caesar’s bidding and collect the scraps Caesar feeds him. He may even think that Caesar likes him. Puppet.
Let’s see, the clerical sex abuse scandal has heavily drained Church coffers. Many of the offending clergy had their fingers in the Church till. The state of the Vatican finances look like they are in the spirit of Judas Iscariot, who held the Apostolic purse. It appears that Church funds are treated like a clerical slush fund rather than being offerings to God, like the fall of the House of Eli.