Ad Dominum

I despise feeling the need to write this sort of thing.

The rubrics and norms of the Mass do not foresee a “second collection.” I can find no mention of it in either the General Instruction of the Roman Missal or the Ceremonial of Bishops. (If I am mistaken about that point I would welcome a correction.) That being said, my parish occasionally receives one. Our last second collection was used to cover bus fare for people in the parish who wanted to attend a trip to Cincinnati but couldn’t afford it on their own. The one before that was used to help fund a medical mission trip by people in the parish to the Philippines. And the one before that was given to a local family who had lost everything they owned in a house fire. Yeah, I remember; they are taken that infrequently, and always for a pressing need.

I wrote on Tuesday about how the Bishop of Portland (Maine) is asking every parish in his diocese to receive a second collection and give the proceeds to Stand for Marriage Maine, a registered PAC (with whom the dioceses’s Director of Public Affairs, Marc Mutty, is also employed).

A video has been making the alt. news rounds this week that features Bishop Malone:

I’m very glad that His Excellency took the time to create a video that explains the Sacrament of Matrimony. The Sacrament of Matrimony is not, however, the law of Maine. It is the law of the Church.

If an Episcopal church in Maine ordained a woman to Holy Orders, would His Excellency also campaign to ban that? After all, this ordination would be invalid and illicit in the Catholic Church’s teachings about Holy Orders.

Even more fundamental than that, however, I am deeply troubled by the fact that the resources of the diocese are being poured into a political campaign.

I can think of a few other uses for a second collection:

1. To raise money to give to women who are considering abortion because of financial hardship.
2. To create a pool of resources for people in Maine who are unemployed.
3. To provide free or low-cost health care to the uninsured in Maine.
4. To pay someone’s electric bill that won’t get paid this month.
5. To purchase a prescription that won’t be filled this month.
6. To fix a car that is the sole transportation for a single, working mother.

My list could go on, but I think the point is clear: to squander the pooled resources of the Church on a political campaign that has nothing to do with the Church is a scandal, plain and simple. Further, the fact that someone on staff in the diocese is also employed by the recipient of the funds is beyond irresponsible: it is unethical. And if all of this were not enough, the very perception of the actions of the Diocese of Portland, and of Bishop Malone in particular, should be enough to give ALL of us significant pause. Look at some of the comments that have been left on the Bishop’s video:

When will all people with intelligence stop paying attention to these fools. Save us from the primitive nonsense of religion.

I sure Christ would be fighting against this man and his bigotry. It’s disgusting how they are wasting their patrons money, just the same way they did in supporting slavery. Equality is an American Value – Vote No on Question 1!

Yeah, a celibate man is an expert on marriage. Did they have to use a crowbar to get his [REDACTED] out of the choir boy’s [REDACTED] to make this smarmy video?

Thousands of years of “tradition” and the best you can do is offer up a two-bit provocateur? Furthermore, you’re sad.

Doesn’ the catholic cult have bigger fish to fry?

Back when the world was flat and still the center of the universe, the Catholic Church took great pride in burning us homos at the stake. Now these same, loving, caring, theologians say that they owe us respect as fellow humans. Today, theyre merely arguing that marriage is too “special” for our sub-class of humans. Are we supposed to feel grateful for their new homo-embracing attitude? Make no mistake! They’d burn us at the stake again in a heartbeat if it were legally possible.

Your diocese’s involvement in the campaign to get it revoked is a textbook violation of the Constitutional separation of church and state, and I would like nothing better than to see your cockamamie cult taxed in this country for every cent it’s worth.

Hey, Bishop. If you’d actually bother to pull your head out of your sanctimonious ass and READ THE BILL, you’d find that it explicitly states that no religious institution that does not wish to grant blessing to same-sex couples will be required or even recommended to do so. It is entirely, 100% a secular matter.

This is one of those “make or break moments,” a critical moment in which the eyes of the world are upon us. Is this really all that the Church in Maine can offer?

“Much will be required from everyone to whom much has been given.”

Pax et bonum.