Piety Stores

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This may be something that’s local to Australia (I don’t remember this in the USA), but all the Catholic churches here have “piety stores” - a small room or booth where Catholic items (rosaries, greeting cards, statues, medals of saints, etc…) are sold. The piety stores open directly after Mass.

It may just be me, but I find this practice a bit too close to the moneychangers in the temple. I haven’t overturned any tables just yet though 🙂

What does everyone else think of this practice?
 
My parish does not have a store, but I’ve been to ones that do. I don’t know any that are open on Sundays but they are open other days of the week.
 
Here in Pittsburgh, we have Kirner’s and another Catholic merchant out on Liberty Ave. in Bloomfield and there are certainly others carrying this merchandise.

I could see where, out in outlying areas like Australia, that this can provide a real need for the people and don’t really see any problem as long as it isn’t being sold in the nave itself.
 
Many Catholics prefer going to a Catholic store to purchase such items. They can do so on-line or from mail-order catalogs, but they would like to see the item in person before purchasing it.

I consider it a service that a nearby parish sells religious items such as Bibles, medals, books, rosaries, statues, etc. When we purchase them on-line or through catalogs there are always expensive shipping charges added.
 
The only place in the United States I can recall seeing something like this is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Maybe the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception too, but I’m not sure. Certainly I haven’t seen such shops in ordinary parishes.
 
I’ve only seen shops in “destination” types of churches, such as big cathedrals or shrines, not in local parishes. They’re either in the basement of the church or in a separate building, and I’ve always thought of them as souvenir-types of shops, whose proceeds go to helping to maintain the main mission of the particular “destination” church. I’ve never really thought of them as “moneychanger in the temple” sorts of things.
 
Sorry, a few clarifications:
  1. The Piety Stores are in the church, but not in the nave. Usually toward the back or near the entrance/exit.
  2. This is in Melbourne (and I’ve seen them in Sydney as well), so we’re not talking out in the outback.
  3. There is at least one exclusively Catholic store in Sydney and there are several chains of Christian bookstores in the capital cities of Australia that sell Catholic items.
 
I noticed several parishes in Australia with a room in the back marked “Piety Stall” selling rosaries, small statues, and similar items. Many American churches have these too, but we don’t refer to them as piety stalls or stores. Most often it is a called a religious goods or Catholic supplies store, whether inside a church or a separate business.
 
We have a store. The profits go to our outreach program. There are no Catholic stores in our area and it fills a need.
 
Thank you all for your (name removed by moderator)ut. You’ve definitely made me think!
 
Jesus’ anger had nothing to do with the fact that the sacrificial animals were being sold outside the temple courtyard.The problem was with the money changers in the temple. They were cheating the people who required their services in order to perform their duties in worship. If the people who were coming to the temple could not bring their own sacrificial animals (remember, people were coming from all over the region, and it was often simply not possible to travel with the necessary animals) they could purchase them at the temple, but only with approved currency. They had to exchange their regular currency for temple currency. The money changers made it very difficult, if not impossible, for some to buy the animals because they charged exorbitant fees to change the currency.
Selling goods to support the parish or its ministries is not immoral or unethical, in and of itself.
 
I have seen items for sale in some small ethnic parishes around here and in one Byzantine church. Not a real “store”, but a display where one could purchase books, Rosaries, meedals, etc. Often it’s on the honor system. My parish sells items handmade from our sister parish in El Salvador after Mass in the hall to help support that parish.

Usualy the “stores” are associated with a monastery, if they are not outright retail stores.
 
Aelred_Minor said:
The only place in the United States I can recall seeing something like this is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Maybe the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception too, but I’m not sure. Certainly I haven’t seen such shops in ordinary parishes.
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Wow. I would say that about half of the parishes that I have visited, plus my own, have a gift shop or bok store. Been that way since the 1970s.
 
Rahn said:
This may be something that’s local to Australia (I don’t remember this in the USA), but all the Catholic churches here have “piety stores” - a small room or booth where Catholic items (rosaries, greeting cards, statues, medals of saints, etc…) are sold. The piety stores open directly after Mass.

It may just be me, but I find this practice a bit too close to the moneychangers in the temple. I haven’t overturned any tables just yet though 🙂

What does everyone else think of this practice?
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Money changers are like banks or currency exchange kiosks at the airport. Not at all the same thing.
As long as the store isn’t open during Mass its seems to be ok.
 
One of my old churches had a giftshop in the back that would be open for about 15-20 minutes after church let out. Some church ladies would make mantillas or handmade rosaries for it, or sometimes there would be crosses or other devotional objects from our sister parish in Central America. There would be a variety of prayer booklets and some commercial statuary as well. It’s been a while, but I believe the proceeds generally went towards supplementing the budgets for parish programs, helping the sister parish, etc.

Another previous church had its own stand-alone bookstore that kept normal business hours a few blocks away from the church itself. An awesome Catholic bookstore, with both common and obscure theological texts; a wide range of statuary; vestments; a good selection of Catholic music and how-to-sing-Gregorian-chant kits; Catholic gifts for kids and teens; and other things.

It was nice to be able to browse a room full of Catholic things, instead of seeing what had ended up on the Catholic shelf of the local Borders or B&N. 🙂 And it was nice to know that the funds were going to a good cause.

It never occurred to me to put them at the same level as the Jesus-and-the-moneychangers scene. If memory serves, I believe part of the reason for the anger was that the moneychangers were cheating the templegoers. For example, sacrificial animals had to be blemish-free. Often times, when animals were brought in and examined, they would be deemed unfit for sacrifice— “But you can buy one of these animals, and they’re okay!” 🙂 And of course, they’d be sold at an inflated cost. 🙂

I’ve also heard about having to pay your temple tax in Jewish currency, but a lot of people only had, say, Roman currency on hand. And they would charge an unfair exchange rate.
 
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