The last several columns have been concerned with the “vicariate system”. When something is strongly desired that makes very little sense, there’s usually money involved.
Of the hundred or so parish priests in a typical diocese, many have obeyed the Biblical instructions to be “wise stewards”. Many priests have, with an admirable focus on thrift and economy, managed to pile up some surprisingly large sums of money.
Those funds are no longer kept in separate bank accounts under the control of the parish priest. Instead, they are kept in a “diocesan account”. There, those funds are looked at longingly by those who would like to be able to utilize those monies for their own goals and desires.
Parish priests know that the individual parishioners of their parish made personal sacrifices to provide those funds. Their priests, quite properly, feel responsible for protecting the investments their own parishioners have made on behalf of their parish.
Few parishioners know, or care, much about those accounts. Most of us go on tithing what we feel we can afford, and are thankful for the opportunity to do so. But, whether in The Church, politics, or business, there are always those who feel they can put other people’s money to “better use” than is currently being made of it.
As a “Prince of The Church”, the bishop may be said to “own” those funds. If a bishop actually needs them, there is no practical way of stopping him from taking them. But, there is a political cost to pay for high-handedness.
In every aspect of human life, the clever know that excuses have to be made to keep those whom they wish to loot from noticing that they are being looted, the way a pickpocket jostles someone to distract them from his hand in their pocket. In organizations supported by voluntary tithing, those who may encourage an executive toward confiscation of moneys may cause a future slamming shut of purses and billfolds.
But, if funds can be confiscated as the result of a “modern, progressive change” that is “the best for all”, their appropriation is made easier. If a “vicariate system”, for instance, could be implemented, the bank accounts of many small parishes, which might have a combined total of eight or nine digits between the dollar sign and the decimal point, could be brought under a “central control” for “the common good”.
Most of us would be so focused on all the activity of such a change that we would not notice the disappearance of many, many bank accounts far away.
Global Warming is a vast smokescreen designed by those who will profit from making people pay far, far more for the energy they use than that energy costs. The “vicariate system” provides a similar distraction.
Those who most willingly participate in Global Warming lies see them as an opportunity to justify gaining money and power in order to “help make things better”. Within a diocese, those who work hardest to install a system that allows the transfer of funds from others to themselves may also be seen as having provided themselves a good opportunity to be made vicars.
