Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Improper Use Of Funds By The Catholic Church

A post dated May 29, 2019, cited an article by Market Watch  entitled Pope Francis is no fan of ‘builders of walls,’ donates $500,000 to migrants. [1]

Yesterday, June 4, CNN  published an article entitled The US Catholic Church spent more than $300 million on abuse-related costs in 12 months.  Quoted below is the first paragraph [2]:  

Between June 2017 and June 2018 the Catholic Church in the United States spent a whopping $301.6 million on costs related to clergy sexual abuse, including nearly $200 million in legal settlements, according to a report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The amount is sixty times (60x) more than the relative paltry $500,000 one-time donation Bergoglio gave to the migrants.  In comparison, the $301.6 million was used up in just in one fiscal year in the United States alone.  What about the amount spent in previous years, and the years to follow, in the United States and elsewhere around the world?

Collections are supposed to pay for the costs of upkeep of churches and to help the poor who are unable to afford food, shelter and health care, not to pay legal fees and out-of-court settlements for clergy sexual abuse.  Such use of church funds by clerics is improper and ought to be classified as a mortal sin.  It ought to be a sin so grave that unless the clerics repent, they could be subject to eternal damnation.

In the future, the monies needed to pay for expenses related to sexual abuse should first be taken from the clerics' living expenses until they all become mendicants like Saint Francis of Assisi.

Only then will they truly experience what they had set out to do, to live out the vow of poverty, and to be like Christ.  Otherwise, they are just like some bureaucrats who get paid with benefits and who do not do much work.  Some even take drugs and engage in sex with each other, with other gay men, gay male escorts, seminarians and with boys, violating their vow of chastity.

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