The poor you have always…the Church should stand for values and morales

I believe in God, but examples like this justify my not believing in religion.

The Church should stand for a lot of things that it doesn’t. Values and morales? Maybe they should spend more time practicing what is preached.

Two comments:

1. This money did not come from “parishioners”, as we think of them. From reading the original article, it’s pretty obvious that the Archbishop has a few wealthy donors that he can tap for money when he wants it for something like this, i.e., the “special fund” that he can spend at his discretion.

2. Edo - I believe you are paraphrasing Matthew 26:11, one of (in my mind) the most mis-interpreted passages in the gospels. “The poor you will always have with you.” That, in my mind, does not mean that one should work for goals other than service to the poor. Obviously, there is a meaning in the context of the specific passage. Howver, for a larger meaning, what Jesus meant, if you read it in context with the entirety of the gospel, is that as followers of him and his message, you will ALWAYS be on the side and with the poor. There is no other place a Christain can be.

Amen, Mary. Catholics here in Ferguson are desperately trying to save Blessed Theresa school from being closed - ironically, because of financial issues. But the Archdiocese can throw away ten grand for something not even in this state?!

Just one more reason why I’m glad I left the church years ago. Their priorities are NOT for their communities; they’re for preserving an ancient hierarchy, pushing their “morals” on everyone else, and building more wealth.

Don’t forget - the Catholic Church also thought it was money well spent to protect pedophiles. Why anyone continues to fund that corruption is beyond me.

I thought the Catholic church needed all the dollars they have to pay off the priest abused alter boys?

Typical liberal. Trying to tell everyone how to spend THEIR OWN money.

Either confiscate it, or tell you how to spend it.

The Archbishop’s priorities are to defend the teachings of Jesus, which he did with that $10,000. He’s a good shepherd! God bless him!

Reading the comments of the ex-Catholics and non-Catholics here reinforces that people hate the Church for what they think it is instead of what it is.

I have yet to find an ex-Catholic who understood why the Church taught something and left because of it. The irrationality of the reasons cited for leaving is overwhelming.

While Ms. Lettner brings up a fair question, there are two key issues here:

1) Any time the institutional Church spends money on what is labeled a “mere” issue of personal morality, it is considered as doing so at the expense of its “real” mission, service to the poor. Actually, the Church was primarily established as a teaching agency, though service to the poor is an integral part of that agency. Secondly, $10,000 is a tiny fraction of the millions of dollars the Church and its affiliated organizations spend on poverty here in St. Louis alone every year. Considering the amount of money that Americans, including many on this blog like myself, spend on unnecessary consumer goods every year, we might reconsider who has out-of-whack priorities.
2) Questions such as gay marriage are not simply issues of personal choice, but ones that have societal ramifications and tangible effects. This particular question is one of what interest society has, via government, of recognizing certain relationships. How society organizes itself is every bit as fundamental as poverty - in fact, looking at the results of the Sexual Revolution, one might suggest it has been a huge contributor to poverty.

Bryan Kirchoff
St. Louis

Eagle Eye, what did Jesus ever say about gay marriage?

I don’t hate the church. I just see it becoming more and more irrelevant. In some ways that’s a shame. In other ways, such as this type of discrimination, not so much. Like it or not, Americans are becoming more sympathetic to gay marriage. It is becoming evident that the Catholic church’s influence is waning and it’s becoming a moral follower of trends rather than a leader, or will have to if it wants to remain in existence.