I'm torn

Our diocese is building a new cathedral. It's necessary - our current cathedral is small, has no parking, and hasn't been used for major diocesan events for 15 years or so. The church that is used hasn't room for expansion and isn't designed for use as a cathedral and has no room for the Catholic Pastoral Centre. Hence, the new cathedral. Which I agree we need. One good thing our bishop is doing is making sure that the diocese doesn't go into debt to build it. It is being coupled with a new parish church that is required for a parish that has far outgrown its current church and needs a new building desperately. The cathedral fits the bill for both needs. Wonderful. There are some problems, of course, Not everyone will agree with some of the design elements of the new cathedral. The pastor there apparently wants the bells installed that are in the original architects design, even though local noise bylaws won't allow them to be used. That's a million dollar purchase in itself. I can see people disagreeing with some of these sorts of things that they will see as wasteful and useless. And they may well be valid disagreements. Anyway.

Our Parish Pastoral Council met this week for our regular monthly meeting. We were joined by a couple of the fundraisers hired by the diocese to get this thing under way and to raise the money for the cathedral. We were bombarded by enthusiastic people telling us how wonderful an opportunity it is for our diocese and its individual parishes to be revitalized and filled with new faith and enthusiasm for church by being given the opportunity to donate money to this venture. We're not talking about a one-time donation. Nor are we talking about 'doubling' our usual Sunday donations, thoug that was mentioned. We're talking about 'sacrificial giving' to the tune of many hundreds, thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, a year. For five years. They've given our parish a goal of over 1.1 million dollars over the 5 years.

I'm a Franciscan, and while committed to 'building the church' I'm also committed to simple living. The parish I live in, minister in, and spend a good part of my life, both socially and for worship, in is an inner city parish, filled mostly with elderly people and poorer people. That's a problem, but also a blessing, as we're not filled with a lot of the same controversies that occur in parishes that have lots of money and people fight over what to do with it and who's in charge. Still, we don't even manage to pay our heating bill each month without taking money from somewhere else and having special fundraising events.

I agree that people need to be encouraged to give, and to give more than they're used to giving. Most of us can afford a bit more. The problem is that financial stewardship and sacrificial giving are not things that are taught in our churches. Tithing is something unknown to most Catholics, and only familiar to those who have been influenced by Protestant and Evangelical teachings, such as those people formed somewhat by things like the Charismatic Renewal. So, where do we start?

Our Catholic education, at least in our diocese, has been mostly done by the Catholic school system. While it may be good in the things of faith, it hasn't proven itself too well in the area of teaching stewardship. This may be something that can be changed. However, I don't think it's going to be able to be done to earlier generations, at the parish level, without some sort of educational program that people can learn from. This doesn't exist at the parish or diocesan level, and if it did, it certainly wouldn't be compulsory. So the whole idea they're trying to put forward is foreign to our diocese.

Now, there are certainly people with lots of money who will look at this and say that sure, they can, and will, do it. But there are others whose giving is already sacrificial, and poorer parishes have a larger number of these people. They've given our parish the goal they have because, as they note, we're above average in our giving per parishioner already. What they fail to see is that this isn't because we have lots of money, it's because our people are good, loving, generous Christians and are already giving sacrificially. Wanting more isn't going to help. What our people will be forced to do is take money from somewhere else that they donate to in the diocese or parish in order to give it to this fundraising program. We give more than the average to the Bishop's Appeal, but I fear that some of that money would disappear if it had to be put somewhere else. Of course, the representatives said that they don't want to see anything rerouted from other things - they don't want our parish to suffer, nor the Bishop's appeal, etc. Of course not. I agree with that. I just fear that it will. The fundraising program that they have initiated also, at the 100% level, allows for a certain amount to come back to the parish if successful. We'd get almost $400,000 from it. They kept emphasizing this and asking what we could do with that money. Alas, I feel that they were appealing to our worst traits in doing this, almost appealing to our greed, though for the benefit of the parish. I didn't feel good about this at all.

Those that can afford to give more should. I think they should be encouraged to. We will, I'm sure. But most of our people can't afford more, and to ask for more is to ask the poor to provide for the wealthy (which is something our politicians have been doing forever). Most of our people will never set foot in the new cathedral. They won't have a reason to, or the means necessary to even get there. It's not something that will benefit them in a tangible way.

I agree with the new cathedral. We need it. I'm just not sure I agree with the slick marketing campaign, glossy brochures, DVDs, appeals to our own parish's self-interest, etc., that they're using to try to fund it. And I guess that's what it comes down to, in the most basic way. This slick fund-raising program is what I'm used to seeing from televangelists and TV preachers. It just doesn't sit well with me...