Is the Church doing enough for the poor?

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Interesting question. A lot of times, money that could go to the poor ends up in the hands of the government.
 
bisco said:
they used to charge my father in law a quarter to sit in the pew.
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When I was a small child, decades ago, we did have some of our more wealthy parishioners that voluntarily paid a small fee to reserve a pew. ( No one was ever charged to sit in a pew.) Even as a child, I knew how generous these people were towards our parish and to our parishioners. So I did not mind them reserving a pew. However, that practice of reserving pews eventually ceased, probably due to more misunderstanding than anything else. Our parish today, like the parish in my home town, is made up of many generous people- the poor, the middle income and rich alike who give generously according to their means. I think that is why our parish is thriving. There are also people who have not yet come to understand the benefits of being a generous giver and that God does provide. But many learn from the example set by others.
 
from what my wife says, it wasn’t voluntary, and her father was a postal worker with six children in catholic schools.
 
bisco said:
from what my wife says, it wasn’t voluntary, and her father was a postal worker with six children in catholic schools.
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So what would happen if he didn’t pay the 25 cents?

Would he have to stand in the back…?

Or would an angel with a fiery sword keep him out of church until he paid…???
 
you said, ‘i don’t think the church is against taxation, i think it’s against FORCED TAXATION’.
what is the difference, is there such a thing as voluntary taxation? i tried to pay my taxes with a smile, but the irs wanted cash.
 
bisco said:
we had a wonderful lady helping in our rcia class. she was very wealthy and very outwardly devout. she lived in a beautiful house in a very expensive neighborhood, and enjoyed traveling the world in her spare time. her idea of helping the poor was to give her starbucks points to the checkout workers at the supermarket and that type of thing.
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I can use some starbucks coffee just about now!:compcoff: lol
 
bisco said:
you said, ‘i don’t think the church is against taxation, i think it’s against FORCED TAXATION’.
what is the difference, is there such a thing as voluntary taxation? i tried to pay my taxes with a smile, but the irs wanted cash.
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No, I don’t think there is such a thing as voluntary taxation. But there is such a thing as voluntary contribution.
 
bisco said:
we had a wonderful lady helping in our rcia class. she was very wealthy and very outwardly devout. she lived in a beautiful house in a very expensive neighborhood, and enjoyed traveling the world in her spare time. her idea of helping the poor was to give her starbucks points to the checkout workers at the supermarket and that type of thing.
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What’s the problem with that? That was a nice thing for her to do. And the rest of her charitable contributions is her own business not anyone else’s.
 
zab said:
What’s the problem with that? That was a nice thing for her to do. And the rest of her charitable contributions is her own business not anyone else’s.
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If you read carefully he may be stating that it is curious to him that a woman of great wealth finds great joy in buying individuals coffees. To me come the story of Christ watching the church goers go buy and watching them paying tithes. He pointed out that the poor women’s gift was more valuable than the rich persons gifts because they gave out of their excess and she gave of her need. The degree of the gift is what is being noted by the poster.
 
WilT said:
If you read carefully he may be stating that it is curious to him that a woman of great wealth finds great joy in buying individuals coffees. To me come the story of Christ watching the church goers go buy and watching them paying tithes. He pointed out that the poor women’s gift was more valuable than the rich persons gifts because they gave out of their excess and she gave of her need. The degree of the gift is what is being noted by the poster.
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And like I pointed how, how do you know the degree of her gifts?
 
the discussion was about giving, as this one is. some are happy to give a lot, some are uncomfortable with that, and some feel they shouldn’t have to give at all. the Lord requires different things from different people.
 
bisco said:
the discussion was about giving, as this one is. some are happy to give a lot, some are uncomfortable with that, and some feel they shouldn’t have to give at all. the Lord requires different things from different people.
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Well, we could point out examples of people from all social groups who do not live up to our expectations of how they should give, not just rich people. I really dislike the tone of this thread which seems to blame the Church and the rich, and others whose posts we do not like, rather than looking to ourselves and asking, “How much to I do or give to help the poor?”
 
agreed, there to seem to be a lot defensive people in this thread. mostly defending their fort knox.😛
 
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