Re:Vatican Uses Donations for the Poor to Plug Its Budget De...
by geerlingguy on Wednesday December 11, 2019 @05:29PM
(#21767468)
As a Catholic who has, at times, been involved in both local and regional Church organizations, this isn't a big surprise.
But a lot of the discussion and reaction assumes Peter's Pence (the annual call for donations from which this money comes) is intermixed with the typical 'tithe' or other charity works for all local Catholic churches, when it's not.
In local Catholic churches (parishes) there is always a standard collection, for the local parish only. The money goes to the local facilities, the school (if they have one), the pastor's residence, and if there's leftovers it can be used for special projects (e.g. new boiler, that sort of thing), and also for local charity.
Then there are often 'second collections' for specific needs... there are local charities, missionary charities, etc. (none of which are even loosely affiliated with the Vatican, and most of which have no affiliation even with the local/regional Church organizations).
And finally there are three or four 'hierarchical' collections or appeals, one or two for the regional church, Peter's Pence, and maybe one or two special collections for a one-off need.
So as a Catholic who does manage donations carefully, and also doesn't particularly enjoy money being used for things other than what it's supposed to be used for (the US Conference of Catholic Bishops say Peter's Pence is to "respond to those who are suffering as a result of war, oppression, natural disaster, and disease."), I don't currently donate to this particular cause.
The problem is, a lot of other Catholics (and this isn't an exclusively Catholic phenomenon) have a bit of a blind trust that all the organizations asking for their money are managing their donations well.
But a lot of the discussion and reaction assumes Peter's Pence (the annual call for donations from which this money comes) is intermixed with the typical 'tithe' or other charity works for all local Catholic churches, when it's not.
In local Catholic churches (parishes) there is always a standard collection, for the local parish only. The money goes to the local facilities, the school (if they have one), the pastor's residence, and if there's leftovers it can be used for special projects (e.g. new boiler, that sort of thing), and also for local charity.
Then there are often 'second collections' for specific needs... there are local charities, missionary charities, etc. (none of which are even loosely affiliated with the Vatican, and most of which have no affiliation even with the local/regional Church organizations).
And finally there are three or four 'hierarchical' collections or appeals, one or two for the regional church, Peter's Pence, and maybe one or two special collections for a one-off need.
So as a Catholic who does manage donations carefully, and also doesn't particularly enjoy money being used for things other than what it's supposed to be used for (the US Conference of Catholic Bishops say Peter's Pence is to "respond to those who are suffering as a result of war, oppression, natural disaster, and disease."), I don't currently donate to this particular cause.
The problem is, a lot of other Catholics (and this isn't an exclusively Catholic phenomenon) have a bit of a blind trust that all the organizations asking for their money are managing their donations well.