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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1987)
PAGE 5 — The Georgia Bulletin, October 8,1987 Msgr. George G. Higgins The Yardstick Two Ways To Finance The Church Do affluent Americans contribute proportionately more to charity than do the poor? According to a new study by the Yale University Program on Non-Profit Organizations, the answer is no. The Yale study found that only 4 percent of those with in comes of $100,000 or more fell into the generous-giver category during a targeted period of years, it also found that the average low-income taxpayer gives a higher proportion of income to charity than the average middle-income person. These figures may come as a surprise to the German bishops’ conference which, by way of defending West Ger many’s church tax system, recently criticized the U.S. church’s voluntary donation system because of "the danger of depending on a few wealthy members.” To be a Catholic in West Germany, one must be registered as such through the church tax, which is collected by the government. Each parish has a list of ail the Catholics so registered. Not to register earns an immediate income tax savings of 8 percent to 10 percent, but it also means that one cannot be married or buried or have one’s children baptized in the church. As Greg Erlandson reported last May in a National Catholic News Service report on the German church tax system, the paradox is that while West German Catholics stay away from church in droves, they contribute approximately $3 billion a year in tax money to the church and to church organizations. According to Erlandson, West German church officials stress that this is not a government subsidy. They contend that it is equitable because each person is taxed according to his or her ability to pay. They further argue that it is not "un duly” coercive, since it "is dependent on the decision of the individual to belong to the church or not.” I suspect that the majority of American Catholics would not be in favor of the German system. Other considerations aside, they can see in it all sorts of dangers to the church itself. But if German church officials are satisfied with the system, so be it. Who are we to tell them how to manage their affairs? We have enough problems of our own. By the same token, however, German church officials, in my opinion, ought to keep out of U.S. church affairs, or at the very least ought to get their facts straight before instructing us on the alleged disadvantages and dangers of our way of financing church programs. To allege, as an official spokesman for the German episcopal conference did, that the church in the United States runs the danger of depending on a few wealthy donors is nonsense. It reveals a woeful lack of knowledge about the inner workings of American Catholicism. The spokesman for the German conference added insult to injury by asserting that under the U.S. system of voluntary contributions, "clergymen cannot always say what they would normally have to say in their capacity as priests, since this could possibly mean the withdrawal of funds." The record shows that this statement is contrary to fact. The fact is that with all its limitations, the church in the United States has been much more outspoken on controver sial issues of public policy and much more critical of its own government (e.g. on the subject of nuclear deterrence and the economy) than has the church in Germany. I say this not to criticize the church in Germany but simply to keep the record straight. It is one thing for church officials in Germany to defend their tax system. I for one find their defense less than con vincing. But to defend their system by misinterpreting the U.S. system of voluntary contributions is altogether unac ceptable. (Copyright (c) 1987 by NC News Service) Father Eugene Hemrick Fresh Approach To Spirituality The Human Side A permanent deacon assisting me one Sunday asked, "Have you read Father Sebastian Moore’s book, Let This Mind Be in You’?” When I responded no, he urged me to do so immediately. The deacon motivated me by saying, "Father Moore has a very positive approach to spirituality and does not dwell, like most spiritual writers, on our weaknesses. His style is not easy but the twist he gives to his writing makes it worth the struggle.” So I obtained the book and found that I agree with those observations. By putting things in a different light, Father Moore’s book helps the reader get a new perspective on life. There is, for example, a freshness in his approach to what might be called life forces serving to connect us with God. Understanding these life forces means understanding ourselves better — and this can lead us toward God. He asks, for example, what it is that people really "desire” and “want.” Why are we constantly in pursuit of some desire. Many people reply that we want because we do not have. Father Moore sees it quite differently: "We desire, not because we are empty but because we are full." He explains that as a child in the womb each person was a bundle of pleasurableness in an oceanic world. We felt good. Later, then, people want to continue feeling good; desire then leads them in a special quest. In a chapter titled "A Moment of Honesty,” Father Moore urges readers to reflect on what a moment of total actualiza tion for them would be. By actualization he means a peak mo ment or experience in life when everything comes together. It is a moment when people feel in control of their lives, when they feel they are utilizing their potential and are performing at the top of their powers. Then he makes a suggestion. He asks readers to meditate on-the moment of their creation, the moment when God first thought of them. Being able to enter into the moment of crea tion would be total actualization, Father Moore says, because it would bring us closest to God. After reading this passage I used the suggestion in my own meditation. The result was a special cioseness to God I have experienced only after days of being on a silent retreat. Father Moore also discusses another life force — what it is that attracts one person to another. Usually we feel it is some inherent beauty in another person that attracts us. But again, Father Moore sees it otherwise. "When you feel attracted to a person you feel good” because something in the other per son triggers off something good in you. As Father Moore moves in and out of his discussion of various life forces that are important parts of ourselves, he moves us closer to our life with Jesus. And by better understanding the goodness in ourselves we come to better appreciate our Creator. My deacon friend was correct when he said that Father Moore’s writing style is difficult. A reader cannot just read this book; the reader must meditate on its ideas and images and enter into the author’s thought patterns. But, if the effort is made, the results will prove well worth the effort. (Copyright (c) 1987 by NC News Service) Ivan J. Kauffman Hope For Central America “It is time to focus on the positive. War signifies the failure of politics. Let us restore faith in dialogue and give peace a chance. Let us not allow fear to prevail. If we work together we will achieve peace. It will be difficult. But has progress ever been easy?” -President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica Address to the U.S. Congress, Sept. 22 After years of civil war — years of coups and counter coups, of death squads and assassinations, of funerals and people being forced to flee their homes — it appears there is real hope for peace in Central America. The five Central American presidents agreed to a peace plan in August, and despite great skepticism — including some outright opposition from the U.S. government — the plan appears to be succeeding. It calls for National Recon ciliation Commissions in all five nations, free elections, freedom of the press, democratization of the political pro cess, and a general cease-fire throughout the region. When the plan was first announced the major question in most minds was, "Will Nicaragua go along?” Initially it seem ed there was little chance the Sandinistas would sign but they did so — and to nearly everyone’s surprise have con tinued to implement the agreement in recent weeks. First Cardinal Obando y Bravo, a leading opponent of the Sandinistas, was named to head the Reconciliation Commis sion. Then two Nicaraguan Church leaders who had been in exile for over a year were allowed to return. Next came per mission to reopen both the opposition newspaper and the Catholic radio station. Most recently Nicaraguans have been permitted to visit family members in refugee camps along the borders. All these are major steps toward democracy, because they give the political opposition in Nicaragua a voice it did not have a few months ago. In addition they have increased the Church s freedom, and greatly improved the lives of many in dividuals. All this came about because a Catholic layman decided to do something about the political problems in his region. He is Oscar Arias Sanchez, a 46-year-old economist with two children who was elected president of Costa Rica only last year. It is he who came up with the basic ideas behind the peace process. Last summer when a delegation of our bishops went to Costa Rica to consult with the Central American bishops, President Arias asked to meet with the U.S. bishops. "He is a very devout Catholic,” says Bishop Joseph Sullivan of Brooklyn, who headed the delegation as chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Social Development and World Peace. “He has very good relations with Church leaders.” Making Peace "He was very discouraged at that time," Bishop Sullivan adds, because he felt his peace plan was being opposed by the U.S. government. "He was looking for our prayers more than anything else, I think,” says Bishop Sullivan of their meeting. But with strong encouragement from the bishops, both Central American and U.S., President Arias kept on trying in the face of what seemed to be hopeless odds, and only two weeks later did produce an agreement between the Central American presidents — an agreement many diplomats had thought impossible. How did he do it? President Arias heads one of the few na tions in the world that does not have an army. The fact that he was a threat to no one was certainly a factor. And his ability to keep going when the task seemed hopeless obviously had a great deal to do with his success. The Central American bishops also played a crucial role. Once again we are witnessing the same kind of non-violent, creative peacemaking which Catholic Church leaders, lay and ordained, have been using with such great success in recent years in places as different as the Philippines, Haiti, Korea, Chile, and Poland. It’s becoming clear that strong Catholic faith combined with practical political know-how can solve problems which otherwise have no solution.
