“Our diocese requires us(if we become associates at a TLM) to continue to attend and support or parish where we are registered and so that is why I go Saturday eves.”
And this is supposed to be fair to the priest who studied long and hard to say the Latin Mass in compliance with the Holy Father’s wishes?
The local bishop has the obligtion to see to it that every parish is self-supporting. When he requires that people support the parish in which they are registered, it is not a rejection of the priests who celebrate mass in Latin. If people are registered within that parish, then they have the obligation to support it, whether they like the Latin mass or not. The issue is about supporting the parish.
I don’t know if the parish that you attend where they celebrate the Latin mass is religious or secular; but if it’s secular, each priest will be paid his monthly salary, regardless of whether you support that parish or not. Secular priests are paid a regular salary for their duties.
Religious priests are not paid salaries. This also causes another problem for some parishes. If a parish is run by religious priests, they depend on the membership of the parish to support not only the religious who work in the parish, but also the members of their religious institute who are sick or retired. The arrangement is that a bishop gives the religious order a fixed amount of money from the parish’s income, regardless of the number of mouths that they have to feed. When the parish income drops, so does the stipend that the bishop allows the religious order to have. In the meantime, the number of mouths they feed, sick and retired that they care for remains constant. Religious priests serving in a parish may only keep a portion of the stipend that the bishop allows. They use this for all of the needs of the community that lives at the parish. The rest of the money is sent to the motherhouse for the care of other religious who are no longer in active ministry.
To preserve this economic balance, bishops have to demand that people support the parish in which they are registered. Otherwise, it makes finances unmanageable and income for each parish unpredictable. A bishop will have a difficult time assigning secular priests to a parish if he doesn’t have an idea how much income it will have and whether they can afford their salaries. He will also have a difficult time asking a religious order to help him by taking over a parish if he can’t garrantee a fixed income for the religious
For example: Our parish is run by Capuchin Brothers. Three of the Brothers are priests, four are not. They have to feed seven people on the income that the bishop allows for the three that are priests, even though the other four minister in the parish and one of them is the superior of the community. He arranges to make sure that the pastor does his job and that the Brothers who are priests have what they need to care for the faithful. But the diocese does not include him in their honorarium or the other three Brothers who are not priests. For this parish, it is important to know how much is going to come in every month. They have to send part of the money to the motherhouse and they have to feed seven people on the salary of two, not three.
In secular parishes this is not a problem. There are no reigious. They are all secular priests and each has a monthly salary, plus they are allowed to work in any other job that pays them a salary when they’re not on duty in their parish. They may also own property such as homes, stocks, bonds and retirement plans. Religious may not have any of this.
It sounds like your bishop just wants to keep the distribution of parish income stable, not that he’s picking on the priests who celebrate mass in Latin. Also, remember that the diocese pays for most of the education of priests from graduate school forward. All of these guys worked just as hard in school or they would not have graduated from garduate school. It’s really not fair to say that the priests who celebrate mass in Latin made great sacrifices. They learned to say mass in Latin. That does not take years of education. I can say this with a certain amount of authority as I taught languages in a seminary for a year. The class was once a week for a semester.
JR
Pastor said that had happened for 3 weeks. I think he alerted the ushers to the problem. It stopped, thankfully.