The Church in Europe is poor. Why do people think otherwise? Do I need to give examples? There will come a day in England when there will be many closed church buildings.
| Thanks to wiki for St. Benedict's Church in Paddlesworth |
Beds in most Church properties are very old. Cobh had new mattresses but the ones in Tyburn and some seminaries are older than some of the parents or even grandparents, of the students! Food is good, but minimal, and much less than what Americans would be used to eating daily. There are few fat seminarians and most priests are thin. All the nuns are very thin, except for one with a medical condition. As Mother Novice Mistress told me, "If you stay here, you will lose weight."
One of a group of nuns visited Tyburn from America and said to Mother that the life was "spartan". It is both by choice and by necessity.
I am really not understanding two things:
One, why the Catholic laity is so stingy here and two; why people assume the Church has money. It emphatically does not. I know some parishes where the parish councils had to collect money for the priest's car, as his area of ministry was so large he could not afford the petrol. I know families which go to Spain on holiday two or three times a year and do not tithe.
Tithing is not the norm here in England, Scotland and Wales, nor it is in Ireland. People may give a pound or a euro at Mass and that is it. I have talked with priests about this, but the Catholics do not regularly support the Church. There are some big donors, such as the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, but those types of donors have become more rare, as families fall away from the Church.
When I ask for help, I am asking for help from my readers, as there are no other resources. Groups tend to give to the Third World very generously which is good. But, the truth is that there are many nuns and seminarians who are suffering from a very low standard of living.
When I was in Cobh, some of the guests complained about the sparse and low quality of food. I said to them that the nuns depended on the laity for donations. One couple left food baskets outside the door there of vegetables, enough for about three dinners. One lady gives some vegetables to London Tyburn. The nuns do not have endowments or savings. They also feed the poorer than themselves. They drink the worst tea and the worst coffee. They live in rooms which make American prisons look like posh hotels. And, yet people think these groups have money. Yes, penance is part of the Rule, as is poverty. But, there is a difference between poverty and penury. Diocesan priests and sems do not make a vow of poverty.
Look into your own hearts and do not pass on the responsibility for giving to others. There may be no "others". If God calls a poor man to the priesthood from a poor family, who should help but the laity? He will be their priest and serve them.
By the way, I am stopping Anonymous comments. I have to do this as the nastiest ones are coming in, of course, under Anonymous. This is cowardice, by the way.
Choose a name and use it, please.
