Riches, Gold and the Church
This entry was posted on 3/20/2008 1:00 AM and is filed under uncategorized.
Commentary Question: The vatican is a crime syndicate, I’ve been to St peters basilica, I was askin my wifey, where do you think all this marble, ivory and gold came from? That place has so much marble, gold, ivory and silver they could build up africa for the african people and still be filthy rich. They should practice what they preach. Even sadder outside of the vatican by the gift shops across the way there's dozens of panhandlers. To answer your question the art in the Vatican came from (mostly) Catholic artists who decided to offer their talents and gifts in order to give Glory to God. During the middle ages until the beginning of the modern age (1700-1800's), in order to show the splendor of what something means Kings, Queens, Sculptors, Artists, Architects built castles, sculptured marble statues, painted huge frescos. Most of the works you see in churches are donations from obviously wealthy or talented people. Art and Architecture had a very different meaning than it does today. It was also not uncommon for people to leave valuables to their church parish in their wills. The way a Church is normally built is that a priest is sent to minister to a town, village or specific location and finds a place to offer mass. Once people start attending or converting offerings were made by the people on their own accord so that they would have a place to worship. Some people donated silverware to use during the mass. Others offered their time to paint or build Churches. Parishes are still built the same and the people determine what goes into them not necessarily the priest. While it is not as common to donate a particular item people often offer to pay for a pew or an organ or the chalice etc… The money in a particular parish does not come from the Church the people raise the money in order to have a place to worship.
In regards to your comments there is a contradiction here, being that many museums and buildings throughout the world are filled with gold and priceless artwork that were created in the image of man or for men. The contradiction being; that few people comment or have a problem with the "jewels" of museums or art galleries but the gifts that were given to the church people have difficulty with and use as a means to criticize the institution. Most of these gifts are art some of them don't even have a material value. If we were to take all art out of museums and sell them we would be destroying someone's work of art and a gift that had been given. This would be an action however noble still an action which is done in bad taste. If one thinks about it the majority of people who received a gold chain as a graduation gift or a Rolex watch for a 25 year employment anniversary or the ipod you got for Christmas would not turn around and liquidate the item and give the money to the beggar on your block. There was a study done on this once and the estimate was that if all the gold in Churches were melted etc... that every poor person would receive approximately 34 cents.
The church does practice what it preaches even though some of its individual members may not. The Catholic Church for example in 2006 received 251 million dollars from their collections and paid 263 in expenses. In comparison that is a rather insignificant sum for an institution which holds over 1 billion members and operates Churches in almost every country in the world plus the fact that it's running a deficit. This is an unfair attack to say that they are not practicing what they preach. The book of revelation talks of all kinds of gold in the temple in heaven where God is present. In the Old Testament God orders people to build gold statues. So if we have gold in honor of God in heaven and on earth there is no contradiction in having it in a Catholic Church. Jesus said that "The poor you will have with you always" (Matthew 26:11). Coincidently He said this at the time when a woman happened to pour expensive oil over His feet. If you recall the story (Matthew v 8-9) the disciples questioned the woman saying that the oil should have been sold and given as alms to the poor. But Jesus rebuked them and stated that there was nothing wrong with pouring this expensive oil over his feet. If the Lord said this than there is nothing wrong with people donating gold or expensive items in order to give glory to God.
Secondly it is not a very accurate assessment of the men and women who serve God in the Church to refer to them as a "crime syndicate" because what you're saying is that the men who give up their lives to preach the gospel are a network of criminals! It's a pretty big sacrifice to give up your life for your faith; no women, measly salary (most priests retire with no money), never knowing where your next place of assignment may be, some countries there is a significant risk that you will be murdered for your beliefs. Could you do that in order to serve God and humanity? This also points to another distinction that needs to be made. This being that the Catholic priests do not own their Churches. They belong to the parishioners. The Archdiocese oversees the regulation of the sacraments, the land, and the management of the money for taxation and expenditure purposes. But the priest and the diocese do not own the materials within Church per say. They are God's! The priest and the diocese oversee the use and management of the building and what it contains within.
In regards to the panhandlers they are exactly as you said outside St Peter's so the relevance of this statement does not really have any reflection upon the Vatican itself. In some ways we could say that if it wasn't for the presence of the Vatican these people who are pan handling would have less opportunity to sell their products than if the Vatican wasn't present (whether this is right or wrong is beyond the scope of this dialogue). For instance we see panhandlers outside every major sport arena yet we don't draw criticism upon them for not giving part of the game revenue's to the homeless. Let's learn to be open minded about God's Church because it is God's Church, it is for all mankind not the rich or the poor. Remember we are instructed to give to Caesar what is Caesar give to God what is God's. Let us rejoice that such Glory is given to God and that we have a place such as the Vatican where we can work to alleviate nations that are poor and struggling such as Africa. All of this time spent attacking the Catholic Church and criticizing it is time wasted. We don't have a lot of time in our lives so let's try focusing on what is good and doing what is good. Maybe then we will have less poor people. It would be wiser instead of sitting around trying to find ways to criticize what others are doing we will use that time to help others find a way to achieve the same blessings we have.
God bless your angel!
