My mom: “The Church should sell all her buildings, use that money for the poor, and hold Mass in a run-down building.”

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Lol. I guess you could say it with a laugh so she knows you are only joking 😉😁

That is the way I feel when someone says that to me, but like I said, i don’t recommend it. Especially since she is your mother. I have never actually told anyone to do that, have thought it though. Well I guess i have said, “well you could make a donation to the cause”, i say it in a charitable way though.
 
I hear that from an evangelical I know. The Church has all those fancy (fill in the blank)

Oh, the evangelicals bought a large industrial building and have spent several hundred K refurbishing it into a “worship space” (it’s not a church!!). So I guess that’s different somehow and acceptable in God’s eyes.

But Catholics have fancy churches.

The point is not to have nothing, the point is to be good stewards of what we have. The man who gives everything away has nothing left to give. If he stewards his gifts, they multiply and he can give and give and give.
 
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But, like you said Notre Dame does.not belong to the Church but to the French State. That money goes to the state who promised to repair it in full. Until that restauration happens the money went to the French State and not the Catholic Church. Why doesn’t your mom write to Macron and ask him how to spend that money because that is where the property is in this case?
 
Just more precise facts:
because of our history,
  • in France, the church buildings belong to the public authorities if they were built before 1905. It represents the large majority of churches/cathedral chapel. (40,300 churches in 2016). It is the owner who pay for maintenance and renovation. the majority of them are affected to the cult, and the Church pay for the operating expenses, such as heating. Which is a relieve for Church budget and save our national heritage!
  • the Cathedrals built before 1905, are own by the French State. Like Notre-Dame de Paris. The others churches and chapel are own by the local collectivities (towns).
  • less than 2,000 churches belong to the dioceses (association diocesaines). They are often a very high financial burden for them.
    À qui appartiennent les églises ?
 
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So Catholics have some beautiful churches because we see them as places of worship in which our living God (Christ) resides in the Tabernacle…and they are holy places…they stand as testaments to the glory of God…as others have commented…the Catholic church is the largest charity organization in the world…should all we Catholics sell our homes also and give the money to the poor…live in tents maybe…come down to the southern states…many of the small country towns…and large cities…the biggest church is that Protestant church lovingly built with donations from their parishioners who want a place to worship and to glorify God also…why not tell them to sell up…and so on and so on…
 
When I had told my mother that I was going to observe Canon Law 1250, fasting on every Friday, she told me that’s ridiculous. Parents can be wrong in a lot of things, so it’s up to us to discern good advice from bad in light of God’s truth.

I think, for this particular topic, you should engage your mom’s argument with positive, IF she still wants to talk about it. I wouldn’t push the subject because whatever she thinks isn’t really going to affect you, but you will have a better argument for anyone else next time.

Think of what a church does for us. It’s a spiritual place of worship, a place where we attract all sorts of saints and sinners to worship God, to be in His presence, and to reflect on ourselves. It needs to be holy, quiet, accessible for a prayerful time, as well as convenient, clean, and beautiful because it needs to attract people there. Emphasize on the necessity of Catholic art, how it helps us reflect on scripture, on the saint, and makes us feel like they are alive with us as we celebrate Mass. The Crucifix and the Stations of the Cross around the building are necessary for us to reflect on the sacrifice of our Lord. We have to build a fitting place for our God to be in because He really is there in every church.

Look back at the Old Testament where God gave specific instructions on how to build the Ark, a beautiful golden masterpiece for God to be in, and then there’s the temple that Solomon built, approved by God with a pillar of fire. Then look at more recent events with our Mother in Guadalupe, in Lourdes. She wanted a church built there so that the faithful can congregate on that holy ground.

The church builds up the faithful, attracts them from all over the world, inspires them with art, and allows them to pray. Yes, there are churches or Mass centres that aren’t as great, but the beautiful churches are necessary to help the Catholic Church grow.

And here’s the kicker, when the Catholic Church grows, God can train virtue into every Catholic, and with those virtues, more Catholics will help the poor. That is what happened in the history of the Catholic church since the first century and up to now.
 
And we in the very North of Europe and the Baltic states are very thankful for the monetary support we receive from the different Catholic dioceses and organisations in Germany. There are also young adults sent to do work experience in our area. Without Germany we would not be able to buy or build churches for a growing Church nor pay priests a very, very modest salary.
 
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