The Church Often Creates Poverty

My friends continue to ask me why I regularly read THE MIRROR (the bi-monthly newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missiouri). My roommate and I have spent considerable time in and near Cape Girardeau during her parent's illness and death and now, the holidays. It seems reasonable to know what is going on around us in the church.

Unfortunately, THE MIRROR has a negative impact on me; my blood pressure becomes dangerously high and I want to call the columnists and ask in which world and century they live! Most months, I feel as if I have been sent back to the time of Pope Pius XII or earlier. The columnists leave no "wiggle" room nor do they encourage one brain cell to engage. On more occasion, I expect some picture of God to accompany the columns since some of the columnists write as if they were God.


How does the Church create poverty? One means is by the publication of diocesan papers such as THE MIRROR and the ultra-conservative columnists who write regularly for this paper. Imagine having recently agonized over removing a parent from life support (honoring that parent's advance directive) and then reading a MIRROR column that states that this is legalized murder! How might life on a respirator with gradual decreasing muscle tone, choaking on one's own saliva, the inability to keep one's head upright, all while fully aware of what is happening and that these symptoms will only worsen be accepted by the columnist who spoke as if he were infallabile (or perhaps, even God). Those children who loved their parents so very much, respected their wishes to not be kept alive artificially and they fought a system of physicians who could not seem to agree with one another about life support, a church that tells them that, in essence, they are murderers are faithful Roman Catholics. Only by the grace of God, were they able to believe that following their parent's wishes was the only way for them.

On the other hand, I can easily imagine someone whose parents had never written advance directives. Now, the adult child is present when the parent has difficulty breathing and says "yes" to a respirator. One week stretches into four and four weeks merge into six months, and there is no change in the parent's condition. The Church would say to the adult child, "Well done good and faithful servant...." while the decision maker wonders just he/she had done.


Churches can make any claims that they want to, but ultimately, God is the only one to Whom we must answer. I believe that the mind of God is much more open that the mind of the Church. We were created with minds of our own and our life focus is to live as God has taught us in Sacred Scripture and through generations of other followers of God and the Christ.


Creating doubt and worse, pointing an accusatory finger in situations such as I have described, is not acceptable. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, have absolutely no authority to dehumanize and marginalize others in matters such as these. I believe that when these family members meet God, they will hear, "Well done good and faithful servants, enter the dominion which has been prepared for you since the beginning of time."