Should the Church Sell the Vatican?

One of the objections I hear all the time about the Catholic Church is that it is too rich. For some, it is a hypocritical organization that preys off of the poor, demanding donations, while it hoards money for itself.

On the one hand, there’s certainly some truth to this. I’ve been to individual churches where funds were mismanaged, priests and bishops lived as kings, and the poor were neglected. To say this about some churches and its members is completely legitimate.

But to say this about the Church universal? That’s a different story. As I share in this video, the Church has some work to do if it wants to be the perfect institution founded by Christ, but selling the Vatican and all of its possessions might not be the best solution. We do much more for the poor in those buildings than we would by selling them.

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 Posted on November 12, 2020 by

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What is Consecrated Life?

Among the most recognizable signs of the Catholic Church are monks and nuns. Even if you’re not Catholic, you can look at the distinct garb of someone who looks like me and know something about them.

I mean, really. Even if you’re not a Christian, who hasn’t seen Sister Act?

That said, not everyone dressed in this way necessarily has the same form of life, and there are plenty of other forms of consecrated life that have no distinct garb at all. What are the many forms of consecrated life and how are they related to one another?

 Posted on November 9, 2020 by

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Why Some Religious Communities are Dying

For those of a certain age, seeing a flock of nuns serving an elementary school or witnessing the ordination of a large class of men isn’t a thing of fantasy, it’s just of the past. This is the way the world used to work long ago. Many people can remember classes of 50 men or women entering convents, entire mansions filled with religious. What a time that was!

Today, this is most certainly not the case, as many from that era have aged out and fewer people are entering today. Numbers have been on the decline since the 1970s, and it seems like there’s nothing that can be done about it.

Yes… and no.

While overall numbers are nothing like they were 60 years ago, there are men and women still entering consecrated life. They’re just choosing certain Orders over others. Which, if you are connected to an Order or congregation that hasn’t seen many vocations of late, might lead you to ask an important question: “why aren’t they joining us?”

In this video, I’d like to offer my take.

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 Posted on November 2, 2020 by

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Stop Trying to Be PURE

I hear it a lot from Catholic speakers: “God wants you to be pure.” Especially in youth contexts, this idea of purity tends to run supreme, the highest goal of one’s life.

I’m not so sure.

For one, a focus on purity tends to be about one thing, sexuality. No one ever talks about purity in relation to charity or justice; there is no insistence on purity as it relates to the corporal works of mercy. If someone is talking about purity, especially to youth, it has everything to do with sex, promiscuity, and immoral thoughts. It is a rather small world of morality.

Of course, the greater point in this is how these positions are articulated, as a focus on purity forces us to emphasize a goal that is just a negation, a life defined by what we don’t do. It’s about not having sex, not dressing promiscuously, not giving in to tempting thoughts or actions. Because, truly, isn’t that what purity is? The absence of the stain of sin.

Taken to it’s logical end, as I do in this video, we can see that this is not a life we want to focus on. Rather, of focus should be on “holiness,” an entirely different concept.

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 Posted on October 26, 2020 by

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People>Things

Categorize this under, “duh, that’s super obvious,” but I feel a need to say this: people are more important than things. I know! I know! What a ridiculous things to have to say! Surely, who doesn’t believe this? Who would possibly argue, seriously, that a physical objects have more inherent value than human beings? Publicly, consciously, no one.

But that doesn’t mean that people don’t believe it.

A quick look to our world betrays any notion that this is an obvious, unnecessary statement. Look at what people spend their money on. Look at what gets people upset. When push comes to shove, I think we see something we don’t want to admit within us, a deference towards worldwide human suffering, and an attachment to things.

I see it in the way that we’ve handled the sex abuse crisis, the burning down of Notre Dame, the outcry against vandalism in our churches. In each of these horrible situations what we see is far greater distress at the loss of things than we do with people’s lives.

This has got to change. Might I recommend reading Jesus’ thoughts on the matter, found in Matthew 25:31-46?

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 Posted on October 19, 2020 by

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Breaking In The Habit

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