Without cost have you received; without cost shall you give (MT 10:8)

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.