OK, but it’s still a stretch to say taxpayer dollars are paying for this palace. If the church was paying taxes on income, the money used to pay for this Archbishop’s fancy abode would still be coming from the same place.
Archbishop of Newark builds himself a palace while the church shuts down schools for lack of funding
Aww. Such sweet and gentle interpretation of my tricoteuserie doth thine hard hewn handle belie. 
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Now that’s a bon mot.
You can call me Mdm. Defarge, if it suits you better. 
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Just looking at the headline, I just knew the punchline was going to be “sexual abuse.”
Seriously, was anyone surprised by this?
Well, sure, that’s one way of looking at it.
Here’s another way:
The money I give to my church funds the “standing on the side of love” campaign that has been instrumental in making gay marriage acceptable in the United States. The money I give to the government is used to murder brown people in foreign countries and pay anti-humanist resource exploitation cartels corporate welfare that they then use to purchase legislation that harms my children.
The money I give my church is used to publish documents like the Pentagon Papers that no other publishers will touch. The money I give to the government is used to prop up brutal and oppressive authoritarian regimes all over the world.
These things being true, I would prefer my money stayed with the church, rather than having any portion go to the government.
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I’ll call you Your Grace if you call me My Liege.
The Catholic Church is matched only by the Republican party in foot marksmanship.
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Wasn’t there something, something about a vow of poverty?
The church doesn’t pay taxes, but they use infrastructure and public services. I don’t know how they can build a mansion like this and NOT run afoul of the tax code. If this were a business, the person using the house would have to pay taxes on the value it would have if it were leased.
Wasn’t there something, something about a vow of poverty?
Nope, that’s just for nuns. Male clergy members may take such a vow voluntarily, but it’s not required for priesthood. That’s why it was such a big deal when Francis decided to forgo many of the luxuries that previous Popes have enjoyed, such as living in a palace and wearing a bunch of jewelry and getting driven around Vatican City in a fancy car by a private chauffeur.
Monastics take vows. but priests, in general, do not live a consecrated life. Iirc, the current pope was released from his monastic obligations when he became a bishop.
You are likely correct. My Catholic school days are long in the past, as is my memory of many of the details of the nonsense that was taught there, but I seem to remember that the vows vary according to which order into which the clergy person is ordained. Franciscans, Dominicans, etc. took a vow of poverty upon ordination. While the exact vow may not have been part of some other ordinations, it was certainly encouraged to live a simple life, free of the temptations of the trappings of wealth, for exactly the reason that this individual is being vilified.
Whether it is a violation of a vow is unimportant, I’m sure we could all agree on the attitude being, at the least, unseemly.
Yep. Start the clock again: Count Down To the Smack Down, Part 2.
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