Where BigGovernment Anti Acorn Site Goes Wrong On the Catholic Church

Regular readers know that :

(1). I have never been a fan of ACORN
(2) I have had major concerns about past Church funding of ACORN and aspects of the second offertory collection for the “Catholic Campaign for Human Development” (CCHD).
and
(3) I have been posting numerous items from BIGGOVERNMENT that in a short week has brought ACORN to their knees.

A Catholic from the Diocese of Alexandria Virginia has written a post at Big Government on the Catholic Church and ACORN. The author Mr Ellis is according to his bio a "2000 graduate of The Catholic University of America. He is an active member of St. Rita Church in Alexandria, VA and is a very involved commenter on many Catholic blogs and listservs. Ellis has written Bishop Paul Loverde of the Arlington (VA) diocese about ACORN in the past."

CUA while there are still problems seems to be going in a right direction. Mr Ellis does not inform us if he wishes to boycott the second collection that we have for the Catholic University of America.

It is a fairly good written piece till we get to this:

Here is what I did, and what I would recommend to anyone. At my parish, 7 percent of the general collection every week is kicked upstairs to the diocese as a kind of tax or tribute. Because dollars are fungible, I don’t want that to happen with my money. So, I give only to capital campaign collections at my parish, which all stays there. My pastor is happy to receive my contribution any way in which I feel comfortable, and I’ve fulfilled my canon law obligation to support my parish financially (221.1).
I suggest anyone concerned about the next dumb Catholic/smart ACORN strategy do the same. Hopefully, the Catholic Church hierarchy has learned, once again, that prudence is a cardinal virtue that informs the theological virtue of charity.

First I am not sure what Mr Ellis's problem is with his Diocese. Yes like all Dioceses it has problems. But in a sense a lot is going right there. We here news articles all the time about the wonderful things that are going on there. Something good must be happening because look at the pictures of all these Seminarians from the Diocese. Unorthodox Dioceses do not produce vocations like that.

Mr Ellis might be within the Letter of Canon law as to just giving money for capital improvements for his parish but he is not in the spirit of the law.

Why is Mr Ellis giving a blanket recommendation of trying to get everyone in every Diocese to have a defacto split between the local Parish and their Bishop and other Parishes? What does this have to do with the reform of the second collection in dispute.

So while Mr Ellis and others are paying for the new parking lot to Parish X who is paying for the Seminary educations of all these potential priests. What about Campus Ministry? I went to his Diocese web site and saw some of the things his Diocese supports. The following are efforts that supplement the supposed "tax or tribute"

From the Diocese of Arlington look at the where the money is going as to the Diocese Capital Campaign . Catholic Scholarships for High School Students for instance. Sounds important.

As to the Bishop's Lenten Appeal (which is similar to what we see in all Diocese and funds much of the same things)

Vocation awareness and discernment groups assisting candidates considering a vocation are coordinated by the diocese. Currently, there are 34 seminarians supported with room, board, tuition and health care expenses .

Ministries and programs that serve parishes, young adults and families throughout the diocese. These programs include:
Gabriel Project,
Project Rachel,
Marriage Preparation,
Marriage Enrichment,
Theology on Tap, (These speakers are often very Orthodox in his Diocese_
and Respect Life Programs.

The Tribunal Office is a healing ministry that examines petitions for annulment

The Diocesan Spiritual Center

Support of Dominican Republic Mission Parishes

INOVA Hospital Ministry and campus ministry programs at George Mason University, Marymount University and Mary Washington University.

Priests retirement

Etc Etc Etc Etc. Go read the whole thing.

Now I suspect Mr Ellis might have political differences with some of the things going on in the Peace and Justice Commission, but I suspect there a lot of Catholics that contribute that have problems with what the Pro-Life office is doing.

So Mr Ellis in his very understandable zeal is wrong to urge Catholics to become Parish only Catholics. He and we all have a far wider obligation and yes that includes to fund resources we all benefit from.

For those interested here is an example of GRANTS that CCHD collection funds in his Diocese. On the whole they look very responsible. Perhaps in other Dioceses they are not so reasonable. That is why Catholic should ask and give input. Regardless I am not sure how the issue of reforming the CCHD second collection is linked to a appeal to shut money off to the Diocese.

I thank Mr Ellis for his work on ACORN. However if he has issues on Diocese "tribute" or "tax" as he puts it that is a separate issue. I don't think we are going to anywhere with reform if a voice on a major site wants to start a war between the people in the pews and the Bishop.