I just ended up in a position where I’m dealing with bills and debts raising a family, and see no point in giving to an organization that is doing fine financially. This isn’t a rant about the wealth of the Vatican or anything like that; I’d simply rather pay my bills than give it to my parish which is doing fine. I have no savings to speak of, I’ll have college/higher education costs coming up, with nothing set aside for them; I live paycheck to paycheck, slowly paying down debt, driving old cars, and I trust God will understand.
Ever since I’ve had children and can’t afford the parish school, I’ve seen no reason to subsidize the Catholic education of others’ children in that school via the Sunday collection.
I volunteered at church functions and soup kitchens for years when I couldn’t afford to tithe. Once I had steady work and could afford to do so, I gave to the church very generously only to watch as our parish frittered away the money for needless upgrades to the building facade while the parochial school badly needed new windows, a roof, and AC units.
This whole thing is enough to make me stop going altogether. I’ve watched as several urban parishes have gone over to the Hispanics. I have no problem with that, but now three out of the 5 services on Sundays are in Spanish. Just 10 years ago, it was a thriving parish and is now one of the most destitute.
If the church thinks its doing itself a favor with this garbage, they’re about to see how serious the conservative parishoners are with their money.