Catholics Looking Down Their Noses At Catholics In Poor Countries
As some of you may or may not know, I am on Facebook, and have a page on Facebook (423 "Likes" currently) called "Faith of the Fathers" (surprise) that relates to these blogs and shares the blog posts there. I also have joined some other Catholic groups including one called "Catholic Church".
It is a good group, and shares lots of information, and it posts photographs of different Catholic parishes from around the world. Late last night, a photo of a parish in Malaysia was posted. That is the photo of the parish at the top of this post.
I was appalled at the number of so-called "good Catholics" who went out of their way to belittle and malign this parish, and maybe (I will give a slight benefit of the doubt) without realizing it, also belittled the people and even questioned their faith in so doing.
Here are just a few of the samplings of what was said. I removed the commenters names as a matter of courtesy :
*This looks like Baptist Church.
*what in the world is this? Masonic temple?
*What a horrible Modernistic "church". It could be used for generic Protestants without a hipccus...
*My comments always get deleted when I tell it like it is. Buildings like these are so disrespectful towards our Lord in the Eucharist.
*A perfect example of the tragedy in architecture in churches since Vatican 2. Just awful.
And the worst one, IMHO:
*Wait a minute - This is a Catholic Church?!? It looks significantly more Protestant to me. Where are the pews - where is the Tabernacle? Why are the seats for the priest and altar servers behind the altar where the Tabernacle should be? Seriously. Abomination of desolation. This is an ugly warehouse with a painting of Jesus in it.
Some of the people from Malaysia felt the need to defend their parish because of what was said. Here are some of their replies:
*That kinda hurts (name removed), since its from my state. Mind you its a muslim majority country, and according to the national gross, its one of the poorest states in the country (Malaysia). This ugly warehouse is where hundreds of devoted Christians pray.
Learn to accept the fact of life that not everyone can afford million dollar building with gold carvings on the ceiling.
*To all, please understand that Malaysia government has double standard law of treating non-moslem followers, they say about liberation but no-liberation of embracing religion, it is still better in my country, Indonesia in case of embracing a religion, but still we have problem to some kind jihadis extremists since our government is soft to them.
*To all my brothers and sisters in Christ I lived in Ranau for 10 years. Their faith are stronger than those, some so call westerners. This place is in the interior and most of the people their were converted to Islam. Yes, this is a catholic church.
*The physical things/appearance of a church do not define what's within... you have beautiful church buildings does not mean your faith is stronger right? Some churches in Interior Sabah (one of the poorest state in M'sia, mind you) may look like a "warehouse"... BUT the most important thing is that our Catholic community grows stronger each year!
*I feel sad for the people of his own Christianity condemned the Catholic church ... for your knowledge ... In Malaysia we do not have a lot of provisions for construction of the church ... they build the church through donations and contribution from the Catholic Christian community only .. they just doing what affordable only .. even though the church is not as beautiful as any other church in the world ... but God will always hear the prayer of his people ...
That's right. Defend it from other Catholics! Catholics primarily from the United States and Canada, who in the safety and security of their country felt it absolutely necessary to disparage a Catholic parish in a country that is predominantly Islamic, and where Christians constitute less than 10% of the population.
Apparently the Malaysian state of Sabah is a poor state where farmers make up the majority of the population there. For a church to be built there donations must be collected from the local Christian population.
What is wrong with you people? Does it make you feel superior in your Catholicity to go out of your way to attempt to make people from a poor country feel that they are not as Catholic as you? Did you sleep better last night, feeling that you told them just exactly what God thinks of them and their parish?
Get off your high horse, and try to at least appear you have a little understanding, a little bit of charity deep down in your heart.
Those people have worked, and worked hard to build a parish where they could worship Our Lord together in unity. They built the very best that they could afford to build in order to worship and honor God. Being in a predominantly Islamic country, they may have to remove the tabernacle and the crucifix to protect them from profanation as is sometimes necessary in other Islamic dominated countries where the Christians are a significant minority.
Try to get yourselves a little educated on the plight of the Church in other countries. Learn what is happening to Christians and their churches in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Read the Asia News here.
Try not buying that pastry or extra coffee for a month and donate that money to some of your brothers and sisters in Christ around the world so that they can build the parishes they so desperately want and need.
Try to help and not be so critical, and go back and try to learn once more what it is to have charity.
And one more thing. This church is beautiful, as is any church where the faithful find Christ Jesus.
