BERNARD J Baume’s letter (CL 30/6/13) argues against the building of a new church on the Gold Coast, when the money could be spent on “the beggar at the gate”.
This argument could be applied to every church building ever constructed, because the poor have always been with us.
It is also unclear to me why church buildings should be singled out.
Catholic schools and hospitals happily spend money to enhance their facilities, not settling for the bare minimum if they can avoid it.
Most homeowners buy the best house they can afford at the time, and this includes most Catholic homeowners.
These schools, hospitals and homeowners are also part of the Church.
Everywhere in our society you can see evidence of surplus wealth.
A perfectly sound and comfortable house is gutted for a $300,000 renovation.
Go to an event where the tickets are $100-plus and sit at the back behind thousands of others. Overseas holidays have become commonplace.
There is even an economic argument that all these activities create work and keep people out of poverty.
So it isn’t a simple choice between churches and beggars.
The people who make up the Church are doing a lot of different things with their money.
Some things may be sinful self-indulgences, but parishioners building a new church shouldn’t be the first suspects.
MICHAEL CASHMAN
Grange, Qld
