Parishable goods: The Catholic vanity fair

Vietnamese Martyrs Parish - Phoenix, AZ  (Photo: John Lynn)

For nearly a year now, I have witnessed the development of the new Vietnamese Martyrs parish as I have been driving past the corner of 29th and Northern Avenues in Phoenix. When I hear the word “parish” used in a religious context, I think of a small, modest church building nestled in an equally small, modest community. As you can tell by the picture that accompanies my article, this particular parish is anything but modest. This place is fashioned to look like a palace. The question is, “for whom has this palace been built?”

My mother, who is of Catholic faith, lives in a relatively isolated, small town. The parish to which she belongs is of the small and modest type. There isn’t a lot of money in her community, but their church is kept clean and operational through the voluntary support of its members. When she comes to visit me in “the big city”, she goes to mass at one of the local parishes near my house. When I lived in Peoria, she went to the St. Elizabeth Seton parish, of which she often remarked about its beauty and the fact that it was obviously supported by a much wealthier congregation than hers at home. Now that I live in Glendale she attends mass at the Blessed Sacrament parish in Tolleson when she visits, which by her account, is not only starkly less wealthy than St. Elizabeth Seton, but even less than that of her hometown parish. I can’t help but ponder how the Catholic Church rationalizes the great disparity between its own parishes.

These observations reminded me of when I used to live in Germany. In the city of Mainz is the 1000-year-old St. Martin’s Cathedral. It was the first giant cathedral I had ever been inside of, and to this day, the most impressive – even more so than the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The architecture, art and sculptures in these cathedrals are absolutely incredible and very lavish. It is obvious that in certain cathedrals and parishes around the world, no expenses are spared, while others simply have nothing to spare. Alright Mom, this is the point in my article where you love me unconditionally as your son…

Why are millions of dollars spent on cathedrals and places like the Vietnamese Martyrs or St. Elizabeth Seton parishes, while others barely scrape by? For whom are these palaces built? What happened to the hundreds of millions of dollars that were donated to Mother Teresa for her orphanages and missions such as her ‘Home for the Dying’, while they still exist in poverty and lack even the most common-sense and basic medical practices and equipment? How does the Pope sleep at night knowing he lives in a palace in the middle of his very own country, when the value of the gold alone in Vatican City could slay hunger and poverty in a few small countries? I wonder how it feels to live in the “No Lease! – Free Utilities!” apartments just a few hundred feet from where the new Vietnamese Martyrs palace has been erected like a billboard for pious Viagra. Do the congregations of these vanity fairs believe that their god would appreciate such ostentatious structures rather than distributing that money equally among their fellow Catholics, or better yet, using that money to help their neighbors and fellow mankind? Or perhaps, do vaulted and sculpted ceilings provide better acoustics for prayers to be heard? In that case, maybe certain memberships do have their privileges.