I've been having a little look at the opinions posted on the NZ Herald site as regards the recent news I've got news for you - we aren't.
In our own Parish, the Bishop has given the go-ahead for a new church to be built to service the entire area. It's been about five years or more since he gave the go-ahead and we STILL haven't raised enough money to get it built albeit after many fund raising sausage sizzles, stalls, auctions and many other events. Rich?? Give me a break.
The same can be said for the renovations to the roof and structure of the Cathedral in Auckland. Here's a quote from a newsletter about the renovations from 2005 -
The roof has to be replaced, floor redone, walls weather proofed and strengthened. The liturgical features of the Cathedral will be re-ordered and redecorated. The support of the parishes of the diocese is essential to raise the $10m needed for the conservation and restoration of the Cathedral. Bishop Pat reminds us that the Cathedral is a “Precious Heritage Entrusted To Us.” He appeals to us to help save St Patrick's Cathedral.
This again was largely supported through donations. Even as late as September last year the Church was appealing for donations -
Two million dollars is still needed to completely restore the cathedral. The Church will no doubt be praying that Aucklanders find it in their hearts to contribute.
What about overseas? A friend of the family recently went across and visited Vanuatu. The priest there was living in a leaking shack; so much so that he had to move his bed to avoid the drips of water.
Well then, you'll no doubt say that might be the case here but look at Rome. Well according to David MacDonald in his blog, he visited the restoration of the Sistine Chapel there and -
I could not take photos in there because a Japanese company owned the copyright. The Vatican didn't have enough money in the budget to restore the Sistine Chapel so a Japanese company did it in exchange for the copyright privileges. The Vatican itself has a yearly budget that is equivalent to the Archdiocese of Chicago, and frequently runs on a deficit.
What about all the sculptures and paintings and buildings that they own though? Well, no one really "owns" them. The assets are "public wealth". It's like a museum, or the art that at Buckingham Palace - it belongs to the people. According to my mother, Bishop Fulton Sheen once famously said in one of his programmes that if the Catholic Church sold every single thing it owned, there would only be enough to give tuppence to every person in the world. I'm sure that's gone up now but it still wouldn't be much.
I'll leave you with another quote from David MacDonald -
The big beautiful traditional Churches that receive the most complaints were not built with big bucks. They were built with the sweat of the brow of volunteers who worked 'till 11 PM every night after a full day of working their regular day jobs. They would do this for years until their community Parish was built. I wish I had that kind of tireless faith and dedication. That is the real wealth of the Catholic Church - the people, and 2000 years of prayers of the faithful.