Priests take a vow of celibacy. They do not take a vow of poverty.
GG2, Jesuit priests do indeed take a vow of poverty.
Pope Francis did not renounce his vows when he became Pope.
Drive, hell.
Somebody drives FOR him.
Kind of like Justin Bieber or Bill Maher.
One of my early church memories is my parents receiving a letter from the local church asking for money so the Monsignor could get a new Cadillac. My parents - both very conservative - were furious. They changed parishes.
The fact is that it looks lousy. That’s not why people put money in a church basket. It’s bad stewardship.
If 5th generation welfare recipients can, whats the matter with priests. They at least get it by consent, not by government force.
I like this Pope and I’m not even Catholic!
.
a rich priest should . . . if he chooses to.
What happened? Many of us wonder.
Priests are free and are able to drive anything they can afford. Those with a vow of poverty probably raise eyebrows by driving Corvettes, and that means their “vow of poverty” is being cheapened in the eyes of outsiders. In their case, I’d say it isn’t wise, but that doesn’t change their freedom.
With diocesan or others with no vow of poverty, then they should drive what they can afford to drive.
Some time ago, our parish priest (a navy chaplain) bought a very well used TVR 2500 sports car and I spent a lot of time helping him get that thing running. One Saturday, he was driving with excessive brio and we were pulled over. The cop was apparently a Catholic too and when he spotted our priest’s roman collar, he said something like: “Father! What were you doing driving like that?”. Our hotrodding priest said “Oh, give me a break - I gave up sex, didn’t I?”. The red-faced young cop just told to get going and behave.
Some time ago, our parish priest (a navy chaplain) bought a very well used TVR 2500 sports car and I spent a lot of time helping him get that thing running. One Saturday, he was driving with excessive brio and we were pulled over. The cop was apparently a Catholic too and when he spotted our priest’s roman collar, he said something like: “Father! What were you doing driving like that?”. Our hotrodding priest said “Oh, give me a break - I gave up sex, didn’t I?”. The red-faced young cop just told to get going and behave.
Nice people should enjoy their nice things.
There is always going to be some poor drunken wretch too ignorant to help himself let alone anyone else. That doesn’t mean the religious experience has to be cheapened for all the rest - imho.
The '34 Stutz Bearcat
Personally, I couldn’t care less what kind of car a priest drives. Really.
Regards,
I say no, it doesn’t look good especially when they are assigned to poor urban churches. I’ve seen a priest, who came from a wealthy family drive a fancy car, wear $200 sunglasses and have a membership at a country club while a pastor at a church in the ghetto. Not very humble in my book.