Funding Cathedral Construction

As Pray Tell has reported, the Diocese of Raleigh is building a new cathedral.

Several readers have written to express concern about this donor brochure: “Honor and Memorial Naming Opportunities.”

This has the feel of professional fundraising, and I’m sure it’s not unique to this project, but is the way these things are done nowadays. “Best practices,” I’m sure they call it.

Bishop Burbidge (who just got appointed to Arlington yesterday, btw) writes in the introduction:

At this time, you are invited to participate in the Honor and Memorial Opportunities, through which your family or a loved one can be remembered. There are various levels in which you can contribute. For generations to come, your legacy could be made evident to all who come to pray and worship at Holy Name of Jesus cathedral.

A rose window is a quarter million, the clerestory windows are $100,000. Statues run from 30K to 100K. Each station (of the Stations of the Cross) is $75,000, so I guess Jesus’ entire passion and death costs $1,050,000. And so on.

It’s too easy to criticize all this, I think. Cathedrals cost money to build. Prayers are great but they don’t pay the bills. If people want a beautiful cathedral to worship in, they have to fund it somehow.

I’m sure that donors are bringing great faith and devotion to the beloved project. It is admirable that wealthy people are using resources for this that could have been used for, say, real estate investments or a second (or third) home or the like.

What is our uneasiness with this? Is it justified?

My main concern with endeavors like this (and there are a lot of such projects today in church-sponsored colleges, in religious houses, in parishes and dioceses) is that the building becomes a monument to ourselves, and it highlights who the “better people” are because of their wealth. The fundraising process plays on competitiveness among wealthy people and their desire for recognition.

As to what is in the hearts of donors, I do not know. I’m sure it’s mostly generosity and love of the church. And who is to say whether the widow giving her mite isn’t more prideful, more demonstrative in making sure everyone sees her donation, than a humble millionaire?

There was a time when our university only named buildings after saints, not donors. Well, them days is long gone. That’s not the way the world works anymore.

I hope the donor plaques are not too ostentatious, and that they’re located in entry ways or hallways and not in the worship space itself. I trust there won’t be a large sign on the altar or ambo saying “Brought to you by the generosity of the Jones family.”

So it’s OK, I guess. But. I have misgivings. I wonder… what’s the alternative? How can the spiritual dangers be kept in check?

What do you think?

awr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anthony Ruff, OSB

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John's Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John's University School of Theology-Seminary. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. He does priestly ministry at the neighboring community of Benedictine sisters in St. Joseph.

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Comments

12 responses to “Funding Cathedral Construction”

  1. Scott Pluff

    The late 1800s church in the small town where I grew up had family names inscribed on each stained glass window, large enough to read from across the room. For good or bad, this is not a new phenomenon.

    Reply
    1. Karl Liam Saur

      @Scott Pluff:
      Indeed. I’ve seen this is scores of old churches in the USA.

      Reply
  2. Jakob Karl Rinderknecht

    Hardly a new practice — just look around Stearns County and all the churches with stained glass windows with the names of various families / groups / confraternaties at the bottom. Or, remember what the basement of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception looks like – there’s hardly a surface that isn’t engraved with someone’s name or the name of a religious congregation.

    It seems to me that there’s a difference between this and the indulgences that supported the building of St. Peter’s, although that incident is probably one reason we are justifiably squeamish about anything that looks like the incident that touched off the Reformation.

    (To be clear, those indulgences were only indirectly funding St. Peter’s. They were offered by the Archbishop of Madgeburg who wished to repay a loan he’d taken out to pay for the the pallium and the other expenses from when he added the see of Mainz to his ‘holdings’. The borrowed money had been given to Leo X, and presumably used for the building of St. Peter’s. Also, half of the money raised by the indulgences was to go directly to the Holy See. I don’t think that that historical clarity makes it less problematic.)

    Reply
  3. Patrick Gorman

    I’ve always thought that we should have corporate sponsors. I like the sound of the Bud Light Pipe Organ or the Tostitos Lady Chapel.

    Reply
  4. Chuck Middendorf

    Our new parish church is on the ground floor of a homeless shelter, and a large percentage of our parishioners are homeless or formerly homeless. Therefore, for better or worse, we had to go raise funds from wealthy non-parishioners, which was easily done, because many people support the work of justice and equality (and the homeless shelter got a nice renovation at the same time).

    Two clear outcomes:
    1. 95% of folks giving money, from the poorest of the poor, to the richest of the rich, didn’t care about any recognition. Surely the most well-off wanted to give anonymously, or at least wanted to recognition. Passionate about the mission? Recognition isn’t necessary.

    2. Mostly to appease the remaining 5%, we are creating a donor wall, but we’re putting it far away from the worship space. And all names are listed alphabetically, regardless of the size of the gift. I think for parishioners who know that some people are well-off and some have since passed away on the streets of the city, it’s a good reminder of our baptismal equality, and equality in the eyes of God.

    Reply
  5. Chase M. Becker

    I have no problem with these various “naming opportunities” – as other commenters have pointed out, there’s a very long history of this in the Church. Whether it’s family names on stained glass or square-haloed donors in mosaics, this has been around for a long time. Though, I do think it’s best not to have memorial plaques on everything.

    My issue in this particular instance is the apparent price gouging of the various items listed in the Cathedral’s donor booklet. These sponsorship opportunities are presented in a way that makes it appear as if donors are paying for the actual piece of artwork. There’s no way on earth that the actual cost of each individual Station is $75,000 – these particular stations are re-purposed from a demolished church that need a light restoration. They are not new, monumental works.

    I understand that the high pricing of these items is one way to raise capital for the entire building project, but these outrageous prices put such “naming opportunities” out of reach for most people. To me, this seems to reinforce the idea that the commissioning of art is the domain of the über-wealthy, and not for regular folks.

    Reply
  6. Jack Feehily

    There’s also a very long history for the belief that offering Masses for the dead will rescue a soul from purgatory. And another by which priests supported themselves by accepting offerings for said Masses or for blessing people, places, and things. I have no reservation about praying for those who died in the hope of rising again or for giving blessings, but selling them, while canonically forbidden, is another matter. Memorial gifts are a problem, but I don’t have the solution.

    Reply
  7. Alan Johnson

    Indulgences?

    Reply
  8. Jeff Rexhausen

    For a cathedral, what about asking groups of parishes (clusters, deaneries, etc.) to each raise money for one of the stations? Each station would recognize the generosity of the people of those parishes, regardless of how much they gave.

    Reply
  9. joseph mangone

    AMEN Chase. I don’t like price gouging from anyone or any institution…
    When I needed funds from vestments to the baptismal pool, I simply placed an “ad” in the parish bulletin with the cost of the item. Unless the donor requested a plaque, I simply placed another ad thanking the person or group for their gift to the parish.
    In light of Jack’s comments regarding payments for Masses, blessings, etc. I hope we learned our lesson from Fr. Luther in 1517.

    Reply
  10. Maria Leonard

    Our parish church was built in 1918. Only two items are marked with the name of a donor, both in obscure places. When money was raised for a restoration/renovation in the 80’s, a simple book was created listing the names of donors without dollar amounts and kept near the office.

    Reply
  11. Paul Inwood

    One problem may be whether the faithful are being asked to contribute to an inferior design. I understand that the first design was scrapped, and that the second one has been or is going to be scrapped too. (Does anyone have any up-to-date information?) Long, narrow buildings, even with cruciform top ends, just don’t cut it any more.

    Reply

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