Pope Francis rolls out his Clunkers For Clerics program

The market for beat-up Fiats just got a whole lot brighter.

Inspection — The Pope declared war on the Vatican's luxury cars. First, he attacked wastefulness, underscoring that "it bothers me when I see a priest or a sister with a brand new car." Then, a few days later, he put into practice what he had stated during a meeting with seminarians: on Wednesday he made an inspection of the Vatican parking lot. It isn't the first time — already in the past days Pope Francis, on his way to lunch with a cardinal friend, visited the place where some cardinals usually park their cars.

Father Z, who provided the above translation, asks the Holy Father to please see the forest for the trees.

This whole topic is a phenomenal waste of time. I post on it because, mark my words, people who can barely scrape three brain cells together, are going to latch onto the vague moralism of "think of the poor" when looking at the local priest's car. There are some people who think that if the priest isn't licking up water from puddles on the sidewalk and rubbing gravel through his hair, he is a bad priest who doesn't care enough about las ovejas pobres.

Indeed. The very idea of Clunkers for Clerics seems absurd to me too. A priest needs reliable transportation. He should be tending to his flock, not constantly prowling around for low-budget car repairs. A fellow who could get called out at any hour of the day or night needs to know his car will start, and that it'll get him wherever he's going and safely back home again.

An automotive hairshirt does not meet that requirement.

And not for nothing, but Father Z also notes (a) the PopeMobile ain't cheap, and (b) a budget-conscious alternative which popes have used for centuries already exists.

If not that, I'd say "take the bus," but Papa Bergoglio just might believe I was being serious.

Posted at 19:06 by Chris Wysocki   [/religion]   Comments | Perm Link |
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