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I am sorry. I support all the causes above, but I can't withhold my tithe to my church. Ours is a very poor parish of mostly immigrants, with only a handful of people contributing to the collection. Majority of the people are Latinos who seem to be "transient" parishioners (who claim to belong to other parishes but come to our church only to visit with friends and relatives) and are not regular contributors.

We have a well-loved pastor. He's from Nicaragua but educated as a physician in the U.S. and he's trying his very best to energize his fellow Latinos to contribute. Our pastor is prayerful, conservative, compassionate, and hardworking, and has a lot of charitable projects even for a parish our size. We minister to the sick and the dying, the day laborers, out-of-school youths, and working class families, and even to non-Catholics. We need all the financial help we can get.

I will continue praying for the clergy in the U.S. What's happening to our Church in the U.S. is so distressing but I trust that Our Lord Jesus Christ will make known His plans for us and accomplish it. Our God does work in mysterious ways! The good God is very good! He will not allow His Church to be victimized by evil, as He promised.

I wish you the best on this project. I hope it works. But I am sorry, I can't go with you on this.

Peace and all good.

Perhaps you can contribute directly to the causes sponsored by your parish, but still withhold on Sunday as a protest against the Episcopates lack of will in dealing with a great evil.

Your money would then stay within your parish and a message would be received by the local bishop. Your priest may be able to lead you in a way to still help the parish and the poor while making sure the message is received by those that need to hear it.

I understand your situation. Perhaps you and your parish could write your bishop a letter stating the four concerns and asking for his involvement to create a solution that honors Christ and sustains His Church.