Catholic News Agency Rings the Alarm Bell: "The U.S. Church Is Going Broke"

Catholic News Agency Rings the Alarm Bell: “The U.S. Church Is Going Broke”
By Terry Firma, May 9, 2020

Even in ordinary times, Catholics are not known for generosity to parish collection plates.

That’s not me maligning penny-pinching believers. That’s a direct quote from an article over at the Catholic News Agency, written by editor-in-chief JD Flynn, that talks about the United States Catholic Church going broke. Flynn doesn’t say the Church might or may or could.

Is going broke.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate estimates that Catholic families registered in a parish give an average of $10 each week in offertory. By most estimates, that amount has been on the decline since the 2018 sexual abuse scandal, which has prompted widespread frustration with bishops among active Catholics.

I follow this stuff daily and I honestly had to look up which sexual abuse scandal “2018” refers to. In the last two or three decades, you could pick any random year to talk about a breaking child-fucking scandal in the Catholic Church, and you’d be correct — there’d be one.

I imagine none of those outrages increased Catholic believers’ enthusiasm to give money to the Church. Likewise, the occasional reports of higher-ups living in conditions that vary from great luxury to obscene splendor must’ve cooled donors’ ardor.

(snip)

Flynn touched ever-so-briefly on “the 2018 sexual abuse scandal.” Absent from his article, though, is any mention of the colossal sums that the Church has had to pay to the victims of child sexual abuse. That, and the related bankruptcy proceedings for diocese after diocese, can’t have make the financial picture any rosier.

Because I’m all about helping my fellow man, I have a solution for the beleaguered Church — but it lies with the Vatican, not with churchgoing families and their doubtful willingness to open their wallets wider.

It’s simple. The Mother Church can have a global fire sale. Sell the marble sculptures, the precious paintings, and the medieval tapestries. Sell the illuminated manuscripts, the secret papal account books, and the rest of the Vatican’s historic papers. Sell the jewel-encrusted altars, thuribles, and crucifixes. Sell the gold-clad cathedrals. Sell the cavernous convents and the monasteries. Cash out the stock and bond portfolios.

Start there. If that doesn’t yield enough to accommodate Catholic clergymen around the world at the level to which they’ve become accustomed, here’s my second suggestion. The Pope can encourage priests to live like itinerant preachers, much like the god-man they all claim to follow. Perhaps they can go around with an alms bowl like some of their Buddhist counterparts, and crash on Samaritans’ couches. That I could respect. How many of them would choose such a life? Three percent? Five? Those who decline and those who accept will reveal exactly how serious they are about their faith and their professed calling.

I can’t wait.