I must offer a deep respectful bow in the direction of Opus Dei
Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, archbishop of Lima, Peru. The best I can tell, he unabashedly stands
for what the Roman Catholic hierarchy is all about…money.
Last week I visited Lima and tried unsuccessfully to visit its cathedral. Here’s a recap of my effort.
Cashier: (As I tried to just
walk in the church door.) Excuse me, you
must buy a ticket.
Me: A ticket? For a church?
I’ve visited many of the greatest cathedrals in the world and never paid.
Cashier: You have to pay to
visit the Religious Art Museum.
Me: We don’t want to visit
the Religious Art Museum. We want to
visit the Cathedral.
Cashier: The cathedral is
only a church when there are services.
The rest of the time it is a museum.
It’s free only when there are services.
Me: (Thinking any cathedral
I’ve visited has oodles of services) Well, when is the next service?
Cashier: Saturday (This was
Monday, by the way.)
Me: Saturday? When does the cathedral have services?
Cashier: Saturday and Sunday mornings only.
Canon 1221 states, “Entry to a church at the hours of sacred functions
is to be open and free of charge.” This
leaves the option to charge for things like sacred music concerts offered in a church.
One probably assumes a cathedral for an
active bishop has many hours of sacred function. But Cardinal Cipriani has whittled his
cathedral’s sacred function times down to 2 Masses: Saturday at 9 a.m. and
Sunday at 11 a.m. He even schedules confessions to occur during Sunday Mass,
conveniently minimizing those pesky hours of sacred function which interfere
with making money.
To put this in perspective, in all my travels visiting Cathedrals and
famous Catholic Churches throughout the world, the only times I have ever paid
an entrance fee to visit a functioning Catholic Church were my visits to the
Vatican museum which included stops at the Pope’s private Sistine Chapel. St. Peter’s Basilica, St. John Lateran, St
Peter in Chains, St Paul, St Mary Major, St. Paul in Rome? Free, free, free, free, free and free. Holy Cross, Santa Maria del Fiore, and Holy
Spirit in Florence? Free, free, and
free. Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur in
Paris? Free and free. St. Patrick in New York? Free.
Perhaps I have successfully visited all these other Catholic Churches
without price because, primarily functioning as churches, they all frequently offer
Masses and other services every day. However,
at 2 Masses per week, each of which at a generous estimate might account for 4 hours,
it seems Cipriani’s cathedral functions as a church, at most, 8 out of the 168
hours in a week. That’s less than 2% of
the time. I suspect he takes advantage
of tax breaks given to churches 100% of the time, though.
Who knew that when reading about the Cathedral and the Religious Art
Museum, I was actually reading about the exact same building which miraculously
varies identity and function relative to day and time. Through some never previously revealed building
transubstantiation process, it seems his cathedral can agilely flip its
functional character back and forth. As
much as Cardinal Cipriani blusters against moral relativity, he seems to
support building function relativity enthusiastically.
Though Cipriani supports building functional relativity, I’m not sure
Canon Law does. According to Book IV,
Title I, Caput I of Canon Law, cathedrals must be dedicated as sacred spaces
and undergo an even more elaborate process to turn them from sacred spaces to ones
for profane usages like that of a museum.
Yet, somehow the Cardinal manages to do this on a weekly if not daily
basis with his cathedral. Maybe the
cathedral’s two Masses begin with a dedication service and end with a
decommissioning one?
Does that mean that since his chair of authority (cathedra) spends most
of its time in a museum it is an historical artifact versus a functioning cathedra? Does he speak and teach with authority only
during the two Masses per week in which the building housing his cathedra
actually functions as a church, 2% of the week?
Does that make him a cardinal only 2% of the time and a museum piece 98%
of the time?
Cipriani’s focus on money does not stop with turning his cathedral into
a revenue-generating museum. He holds
personal and diocesan shares in Yanacocha, a controversial mining company with
a gold mine in the poorest province of Peru that poisoned about 900 people in
2000 via a mercury spill and introduced high levels of cyanide into the local
water supply amongst a population mostly lacking funds to purchase bottled
water. Cardinal, by any chance, do you
wear a “WWJP” bracelet? “Who would Jesus
Poison?”
Maybe in comparison to his gold mining stock, the $10 USD admission to
enter his church seems like kittens’ play.
However, with a $118 USD average weekly Peruvian wage, $10 USD is not a
small amount.
Cipriani, a critic of moral relativity while exhibiting morally
questionable behavior, regularly writes and says sexist things, has been barred
from contributing to certain periodicals after he was caught plagiarizing two
popes’ writings, has his hands dirty in not properly addressing clergy sex
abuse, and denounces homosexuality, social movements and environmental
activists. So, maybe he falls short in
most clergy requirement areas like advocacy for the poor, compassion, decency,
honesty, protecting children, etc… But, baby, he is rock solid in the
profiteering category! He gets an A+
there, for sure.
As much as we suspect so many hierarchy members are all about money, they
at least give a good show of effort by having things like daily Masses. That
might fool some people into thinking they actually care about God’s
people. Not this guy! He lays it right out there. “Show me the money!”
In fairness, the guy has his positive points. It costs money to erect and illuminate the huge Jesus statue and cross, both of which can be seen for miles around Lima, especially at night. Also, for $10 USD, you can get a combo ticket and
tour his palace as well as the cathedral…such a bargain! Maybe, deep down, he really is sensitive
to people’s economic concerns.
At this point the Pope Francis fans might be wondering, “Yes, but what
does Pope Francis think of all this profiteering at the expense of the
environment and poor people’s health?
What does he think about a guy who operates a 2% cathedral/98% museum?” In 2014 Pope Francis appointed Cipriani to
his newly formed Papal Council on Economic Affairs. Evidently, Pope Francis thinks this guy is
just a little bit of alright…actually someone to lead the way on how to handle
money in the church.
So, hats off to Cipriani for openly operating as a money grabbing
cleric. His honesty demonstrating the
primal importance of money amongst the hierarchy is refreshing…albeit contrary
to the gospel and in no way reminiscent of Christ.