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The Dallas Morning News has a story about how a Mexican man is posing as a bishop in order to “sell” the “sacraments” to unwitting Hispanics in the Dallas area. The local ecclesiastical authorities, having been alerted to this menace, have warned their flock to beware. When asked to comment for the Dallas Morning News, Sister Guadalupe Ramirez, director of the diocese’s Department of Catechetical Services, explained why Catholics can’t just settle for a layman in a collar:
“Sacraments aren’t like a Dairy Queen drive-thru. It is a life long experience.”
Right on, Sista!
There are two things (at least) that are odd about this story. First of all, if this man baptized anyone, provided he used a valid formula and had the intention to baptize, those babies are actually baptized. Whereas, of course, this man cannot confect the Blessed Sacrament. But the report doesn’t draw this distinction - not surprisingly, really. Then it finishes with this note:
Sandra Espinoza, 23, said she was outraged by the news when she heard it from her mother, who was invited to attend one of the ceremonies.
“People don’t believe in God because of this kind of person,” she said. “How can you charge for something like that?”
But people do “pay” for this all the time, though perhaps their paying for it was more obvious in the past. They can’t, I suppose, pay for it, qua sacrament, because that would be simony, but the worker deserves his wages and the priest has to be fed and clothed like anyone else. Priests are paid for their priestly work, even if he isn’t a monger of sacraments.
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
It’s useful to distinguish between money for work, and money given to make work possible. It’s not as if the priest is being given money in compensation for doing a disagreeable task. He’s called to administer the sacraments, and people give him money so he can do that and eat, without spending time tent-making.
Makes me think of a traditional monastery I visited a while ago. I dropped off a young, penniless convert from Islam, to spend a week or so, to experience Catholic monastic tradition. The monastery seems to focus a lot on attracting and accommodating visitors, so it seemed like a good fit. However, while making the reservations, the monk guestmaster quickly wanted to know who would be paying, the young man or me?
Of course I was going to make a generous donation to the monastery (as I regularly do via mail to them anyway), but I got the feeling over the phone that I was making a reservation at Motel 6, not Traditional Catholic Monastery.
Anyway, the short time I was able to spend there was wonderful. I never really got a glimpse of monastic life before. I never fully realized how absolutely you give over your total self, your will, your identity, everything when you become a traditional monk. It’s a total abandonment of this world for Christ.
It’s so obvious to see how closer to perfection the monastic life can bring one. Potentially, these men will spend a lot less time in purgatory than the rest of us..
Interesting. Maybe the Dallas diocese should be working on catechesis among the Hispanic population.