Oren —
The Catholic Church is the caretaker of many treasures
of art and architecture, created all over the world
by Christians to praise God. These goods are worth
money, but they are really priceless, and by being
in the hands of the Church who created them, they
are available to all.
Selling all the goods of the
Church, all of which are in the hands of small congregations
of Christians and are the patrimony from their ancestors,
would bring in some money, of course, but it would
take even more money to replace the buildings, and
they would have no art to inspire.
The Church does not have much money (the Vatican
was in the red recently), and most of what she collects
she gives to the poor. She is the largest provider
of social services. Henry VIII and Elizabeth had
the same idea you did, so they closed down all the
monasteries and seized their treasures. As a result,
the entire social welfare and hospital system of
England was shut down. (The monasteries were the
entire social welfare and hospital system of England.) The
result was a horrible misery, which lasted through
the time of Dickens, who wrote about the mean-spirited
non-Christian attitudes of the Protestant society
that was excessively individualistic.
In addition, the treasures that were stolen from
the Church were handed out to cronies and became
the basis for an unjust class system. Usually when
people want to despoil the Church to help the poor (when
the Church does most of the helping of the poor to
begin with), they really just want to despoil
the Church.
As for the Vatican Library, it is open. Many items
are ancient and delicate, most are in foreign languages,
and some, I believe, still need cataloguing. Some
things are secret, in the sense of confidential Church
records. Suppose you were a king and wrote to a Pope
confessing many misdeeds and asking that a Church
be built. You would not want your letter to be make
public.
I guess to sum up, it is right to say that the Church
is the custodian of much great art created for the
service and praise of God.
- If this art were in the hands of private individuals,
it would not be available for all, or it would
be destroyed.
- If it were in the hands of states, it would be
seen intermittently, and subject to political turmoil
and war.
- It is not liquid wealth, and even if the Church
wanted to sell it for the poor, there would be
no one who could buy it!!!
Mary Ann
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