Crowdfunding for vocations: yay or nay?

Started by ServusMariae, May 27, 2018, 01:07:09 AM

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ServusMariae

Back for a while to ask out a little question ... I know of some older folks in my SSPX community who are ultra-rigid to the extent of rejecting all forms of crowdfunding (because not everyone is trustworthy, I guess) - with the exception of priests (because of their authority as the Alter Christus, I guess). For those folks, they show deep favouritism towards the priest whenever he has parish news/prayer requests to proclaim & then they ignore everyone's else pleas for prayers.

as of today they shared with me of how young dudes have been approaching the priests of the priory & euthsiastically sharing "I wanna be a priest!" only to have their dreams wetted by the same old folks who badly berate them with "go find a f***ing benefactor instead of asking us for funds." because in their view, begging for funding is a "disgrace" & "shameful" to the dignity of the Priesthood.

So ... Is crowdfunding ok or not ok for vocational purposes?

Miriam_M

Quote from: ServusMariae on May 27, 2018, 01:07:09 AM
Back for a while to ask out a little question ... I know of some older folks in my SSPX community who are ultra-rigid to the extent of rejecting all forms of crowdfunding (because not everyone is trustworthy, I guess) - with the exception of priests (because of their authority as the Alter Christus, I guess). For those folks, they show deep favouritism towards the priest whenever he has parish news/prayer requests to proclaim & then they ignore everyone's else pleas for prayers.

as of today they shared with me of how young dudes have been approaching the priests of the priory & euthsiastically sharing "I wanna be a priest!" only to have their dreams wetted by the same old folks who badly berate them with "go find a f***ing benefactor instead of asking us for funds." because in their view, begging for funding is a "disgrace" & "shameful" to the dignity of the Priesthood.

So ... Is crowdfunding ok or not ok for vocational purposes?

Servus, there are an awful lot of topics you've brought up here, and I am not sure I understand the entire situation you're asking us to respond to:

One issue is "favoritism" regarding prayer requests.
Another is your question about crowdfunding with respect to vocations, and perhaps other kinds of funding, also.  (I thought crowdfunding referred to anonymous Internet funding --such as GoFundMe-- whereas merely a large pool of donations within a local parish would be called simple community funding or community donations.)
A third (seems to be) whether the authority of the priest is superior, objectively, to the self-assigned authority of lay people, including if those people have "standing" (if they're old).

I can't imagine a situation in which either a group of lay people or a priest would prioritize someone's prayers or someone's intentions over someone else's, let alone engage in some kind of hierarchy about prayer requests themselves.  Prayer requests can be universally sought and universally responded to by anyone, lay or cleric.  (I'm referring to the last part of your first paragraph.)  It is not possible to control the prayers of others, nor do I understand why any lay people would want to.  I've never known a priest, even a bad priest, to suggest that calling on God's assistance for self or someone else is limited by any human being.

If, instead, you are speaking of formal intentions, such as Mass intentions, then of course the priests' wishes have priority.  In our parish the priests have priority on certain feast days when it comes to intentions.  They will often specify certain days such as Easter for the needs of their apostolate. Etc.  But in general, lay people do not speak for priests; the priests speak for themselves.

All that said, priests are naturally very favorable toward vocations and the seminary funding of those.  Our trad priest is not shy about inviting the entire parish to donate, and also getting the potential seminarian to make such a request of the whole parish.  But it's just not an either/or.  There are many funding needs in parishes connected with traditional apostolates, just as there are in diocesan parishes.  One monetary need doesn't cancel out the other.

Some other things about your post seem odd, such as your paraphrasing "old folks" using crude, modern vulgarities.  They're really using such language "when people approach them?"  That would indicate a great deal of anger and sound very unattractive coming from someone elderly.  And again, why would lay people be making decisions, in a traditional leaning parish, regarding contributions toward priestly vocations?

Maybe I just don't understand the sequence here -- who's saying what, who's doing what.

ServusMariae

#2
Quote from: Miriam_M on May 27, 2018, 01:59:51 AM
Servus, there are an awful lot of topics you've brought up here, and I am not sure I understand the entire situation you're asking us to respond to: One issue is "favoritism" regarding prayer requests. Another is your question about crowdfunding with respect to vocations, and perhaps other kinds of funding, also.  (I thought crowdfunding referred to anonymous Internet funding --such as GoFundMe-- whereas merely a large pool of donations within a local parish would be called simple community funding or community donations.) A third (seems to be) whether the authority of the priest is superior, objectively, to the self-assigned authority of lay people, including if those people have "standing" (if they're old).

Yeah, I know my post is a mess. ^-^" I brought up the favouritism/authority issue to provide some context, while the crowdfunding I mentioned refers to not only online platforms (i.e GoFundMe  but also inclusive of offline face-to-face interactions. Ultimately, my main question is whether if it is appropriate for an aspirant to seek financial help for his/her vocation from a group of parishoners instead of say, approaching a seminary & see if a benefactor could sponsor everything, etc .. granted, there are legitimate concerns present as the parishoners may never know how their hard-earned savings will be handled after passing money to some random boy/lady who may claim to have a vocation but then scoot off scamming them ... Apparently priests appear to have more credibility as compared to the ordinary laity where no one can trust one another ... :(

Quote
I can't imagine a situation in which either a group of lay people or a priest would prioritize someone's prayers or someone's intentions over someone else's, let alone engage in some kind of hierarchy about prayer requests themselves. 

I know of 1 lady within the SSPX who actively runs a Prayer Requests group for our SSPX community here .... But she only disseminates requests written directly from the priests & mercilessly blocks everyone else's prayer requests for good health/job/whatever intentions else (becuse priests deserve "exclusive" treatment, it seems.) I could be wrong but having seen her today... It's complicated. You think it's a behaviour I should report to the Priest?

Quote
Some other things about your post seem odd, such as your paraphrasing "old folks" using crude, modern vulgarities.  They're really using such language "when people approach them?"  That would indicate a great deal of anger and sound very unattractive coming from someone elderly.  And again, why would lay people be making decisions, in a traditional leaning parish, regarding contributions toward priestly vocations? Maybe I just don't understand the sequence here -- who's saying what, who's doing what.

For the vulgarities, I sincerely apologize. The way they presented their message was so full of anger that I cannot help but be totally shocked at what they uttered. Who are they to discourage young men from their vocations?  :'(

(Side note: the "old folks" I mention are not truly elderly, but seasoned middle-aged adults.)

jovan66102

I wonder what their views on the mendicant (begging) Orders are. St Francis, St Dominic, St Albertus Magnus, St Thomas Aquinas, St Maximilian Mary Kolbe, and Blessed Titus Brandsma were all beggars, and with the exception of St Francis, they were all priests.
Jovan-Marya Weismiller, T.O.Carm.

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Kaesekopf

They're probably used to seeing people game the "I wanna be a priest" to make a quick buck?

Who knows. 

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