Well Frankie the O.P stated the idea is to build a Columbarium " AT" the church’s altar, so I guess it is time to be technical and define the location of " AT", does that mean under, off to the side, in front or behind.
Really doesn’t matter,
an everything else i said still stands, if a church parish is so small that it can only 320 of the deceased for a cool 1-3 million a pop, it becomes quite obvious doing so isn’t to benefit " parishioners " because only 320 people can be interred. Less we are talking that the entire community is 320 people and this is some remote location and everyone just wants to be interred inside a church when they die and leave all their money to the bishop of the diocese, then that is their perogative.
It would make more sense to just buy property in the community through raising funds by the diocese, to have a Catholic Cemetary with a Columbarium on site, it could be opened to the public and then you are creating more income instead of just limiting income to parishioners and the well endowed out of the 320 people who can afford it. Though I would guess that the area in question already has a cemetery, and a new one isn’t needed or there isn’t enough interest by the local catholics in the diocese to have such a cemetery.
An to try an claim that 1-3 million is good enough of a reason to have a private Columbarium inside a catholic church for only 320 rich people so that a tiny parish can have funds for facilities maintence, come on, ya already said there is no extra property or room. less you want to argue that the money would be used to buy a bigger property to make a bigger church and then the columbarium would be moved to said new property where a cemetery would also be on site.
In the end it is just a money making scheme is all it sounds to be. An I am extremely skeptical that the suggestion of it even being made is real. When you have that much money on the line that is all the issue become about, Money, and who gets access to it and decides what to do with it.
I would take a paupers grave any day than do something as sick as to pay any where near a million dollars for a spot to be interred inside a church. It is a sick and ridiculous notion to do such a thing at a religious institution for only the rich. Plus if a parish is that thirsty to make millions all they have to do is pander to the rich and ask for such a donation and do what slick talkers do, talk about how worthy it is to donate such a large sum, how much good it would do, how their name would be on a shiny plaque some where and that it would forever be known as such n such donated all their money so we could build and do x, y, and z. An then what ever priest, abbot, bishop or cardnial who goes to sell such a story gives the impression that one is earning some special favor with God because all of a sudden God an the Church has this giant interest in what can be done with a couple of million.
So you turned the issue into money and hence how my response took a turn about money.
My bad.