DIARY: Ruminations, Occasional thoughts & happenings - as they arise
I Weep in My Heart - 6 March 2005
In Africa 19,000 children die each day -
from lack of food and medication.
I hear this on Radio Ulster's 'Sunday Sequence' this morning. (Listen
here
if you wish, or look at African Charity )
In my room opposite the parish church of Ardglass I watch as
the finishing touches of a £750,000 renovation take place - probably
nearer £1 million when all Bills are in.
In 1997 and again in 2003/4 I tried to interest two successive parish priests in
a renovation
plan that would have cost about £15,000. Click
here
to view ( Download
Free PDF Viewer if you have not got it) and here
(PDF) to read my reasons for putting it forward,
firstly .
The present parish priest even refused to look at this two-page
proposal, never mind discuss it. He and the bishop had made up their minds
beforehand. 'Consultation' meetings with parishioners were nominal and
brief - the bulk of information going one way, from church authorities to
parishioners.
I should add that if the roof was renewed and a badly needed
sacristy, meeting room and toilet were added the cost would probably have risen
to around £150,000 - less than one-sixth of a million.
I have begun to realise that that this is not just a minor
parochial problem. It's concerned with communication of God's Word,
failing relationships within the church - resulting in fewer people believing in
the divinity of Jesus - and a failure to realise our universal responsibility,
especially in relation to starving children.
"Whatever you do to the least of these little
children you do to me," says our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - and
the leaders of his people in our diocese, in my parish alone, spend £850,000 that could have
saved innumerable lives.
I have deep reservations about controversy. There is enough
hot wind in the world, more than enough quarrels. But I must be truthful.
How do you think Jesus judges this situation? I am sure that
He is pleased with those who operate Trócaire & Cafod (two great Catholic
charity organisations) as well as Children in Need and Oxfam etc., but is he delighted
that our bishop, priests and people spend such large sums on bricks, mortar and
glass while children die from simple starvation in Sudan, Ethiopia
and other African countries? Imagine this: NINETEEN
THOUSAND DYING EVERY DAY! What if one of these was yours?
Of course we need beautiful places in which to meet, to offer the
holy sacrifice of the Eucharist, to praise the living God.
But at such cost?
This is why I weep, have a pain in my heart.
It is a kind and loving heart that each one of us must
have. Love is essential. We do not need grand buildings in which to mouth empty praise. They
are merely tributes to ourselves, not to God.
Think of the marvellous mediaeval cathedrals of Europe, now
mostly empty and deserted - mere tourist attractions.
The creation of buildings do not necessarily give praise to the author of
life. They certainly do not if we build them and fail to care for our brothers
and sisters.
If we do our priorities are wrong, our minds not open to the
truth that we are members of each other in the universal
church.
This is the direct responsibility of those who lead us, in
the name of Christ.
My youngest son, at the age of 14, said to me, "I am not
going to Mass any more!"
"OK", I said, "Why?"
"I am fed up with priests talking at me and not to
me."
Failure to realise the limits to church authority, failure to face reality, failure to perceptively love the truth (ultimately Christ himself), lack of ordinary decent humility, failure to communicate with real, personal honesty - these are the real causes of falling church attendance, not a lack of beautiful church accommodation.
Tell me that I am wrong, if you think that I am. My email is mike@o2c.org