Our Debt and Caritas in Veritate

Just in case I upset anyone in any particular curial office, I am merely being provocative, I am not denouncing anyone, or criticising any particular body etc etc etc....

I have been reading Caritas in Veritate, I have done it twice and I still think I need to reread it again and again. The articles I have read on it don't quite seem to encapsulate the closely woven arguements of theology and economics. Frankly it makes the Pope's previous two encyclicals seem like gentle holiday reads, and Paul VI's Populorum Progressio which it quotes from heavily and developes look like a primary school text.

As a parish priest on the edge of getting my parish into what for us will be a huge debt, £50,000, for the initial phase, more subsequently, at a time when many of my parishioners will be suffering more seriously than others from the effects of the economic crisis, the poor always suffer more than the rich in such a situation, I can't help but read Caritas in Veritate in the light of our situation.

We have and expensive plant, a beautiful Victorian Church, a big priest's house, which doubles as a pastoral centre, a Victorian school building which we run as a centre for the local community, making a small profit. The people who use it are "Voices in Exile", group run from my house for exiles and asylum seekers, along with various "Anonymous" groups Alcholics Anonymous, Cochaine Addicts Anonymous etc. Our buildings are excessively tall, buffetted constantly by the wind and rain coming directly from the English Channel, we are under strict legal obligations to preserve them.

I had an estimate to repair a window in the church for almost £10,000 yesterday, like every bill I have for minor repair work, because of the height of the church, 10% of it is for the cost of scaffolding. Of the money that comes in in the Offertory, which is really our only source of income, the diocese takes an 11% levy, it would be more if we were wealthier. Our parishioners who are mainly immigrants give approximately 60-80 pence per person, about 5o of them register to giftaid, which meeans we get 28p in the pound back from Inland Revenue. As a rough sample of our choir, only 25% are in employment, so the vast majority are on a minimum and very restricted income.

When Cardinal Murphy O'Connor was our Bishop he used to describe Arundel & Brighton as the "Gin and Jag Diocese", which is how other bishops described us. Surrey and Sussex are two of the wealthiest counties in the country but that is certainly not our parish profile, we are definitely inner city. There are certainly very wealthy parishes in our diocese, parishes with property or other endowments, parishes were legacies and large donations trickle in regularly. This is not our parish, a substantial amount of our income and energy goes on literally feeding the poor, if we had more money we could spend even more.

We have never been wealthy, in our history we have had parish priests who have been so overcome by the enormity of the task of keeping our buildings standing that they have done nothing and with crumbling stones falling around their ears they have taken to the bottle and died.

A previous generation built our plant and left it to us and our posterity. We are Christians, not mueum keepers, not custodians of Catholic heritage; the church, our own diocese and the law of the state place enormous burdens on us which we can't really bear. I delight in what Providence has given us but I am sure that a Polish or Slovakian worker who is desperate to gather enough money to return home or a Filipino immigrant desperately holding down two or three jobs to support a family at home, cares nothing at all for our heritage, all they want is the sacraments, a place to go to Mass. The building, its past, its future is of no concern to them, poverty causes one to live in the present and so many are poor. Indeed paying for its restoration merely means diverting already scarce resources from the proclamation of the Gospel.

So what does Caritas in Veritate have to say to us? At its heart is the basic gospel message of "Caritas", of the rich helping the poor. It is not that it is worthy thing to do, but rather is absolute necessity springing from the very notion of justice itself. Pope Benedict does not quote St Ambrose, where he says "If a rich man gives to the poor, he is not giving anything at all, he is merely returning that which he has falsely abrogated to himself, it is only when he gives of his necessities, that he is truly being charitable", as does Populorium Progressio, but it is that notion that lies behind Caritas in Veritate. It is about generosity, sharing, taking responsibility for those in need the details of the document are complicated but the broad sweep is very simple: it is the Gospel message of coming to the help of those in need. Someone yesterday suggested we should stop feeding the hungry because of our restoration project or start charging "Voices in Exile" rent, both would be a rejection of the Gospel.

Lest the Church is accused of hypocrisy, heaven forefend, it strikes me if we are to expect others to implement Caritas in Veritate's teaching, then first of all bishops and diocesan trustees, and their financial staff should take time studying it, and setting their own houses in order, according to its teaching. There must be implications for the redistribution of wealth and resources within the Church whilst still maintaining the principle of subsidiarity. The problem will always be, within the Church, the building of empires, but that seems to be contrary to the spirit of Caritas in Veritate. As it strikes me, the Pope is saying is the obligation is on the rich, "to give", the poor become their means of salvation.

It certainly means that parishes like mine should be given help by those who are wealthier.