Sustaining the Church is responsibility of each Catholic, says Madrid cardinal

Madrid, Spain, Oct 3, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Speaking about the new financial model being used by the Catholic Church in Spain, the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco, said this week that material support for the Church in her mission “has been and always will be the responsibility of her children and an obligation” of all the baptized.

“Material support of the Church, so she can carry our her service of the Word, the Sacraments, and the witness of charity is, has been, and always will be the responsibility of her children and an obligation born of the demands of the commandment of love that binds and unites them to their Lord and Savior,” the cardinal said during his Sunday radio program.

He noted that the Church’s economic and material needs have always been covered by “the generosity of her faithful.”  While the way in which this assistance is given to the Church has varied throughout the centuries, “the principle of the faithful contributing as an obligatory sign and instrument of their communion with the Church and her pastors has remained unchanged.”

Regarding the new financial agreement between the Spanish government and the Bishops’ Conference of Spain, Cardinal Rouco said, “It’s not going to completely solve the problem of what the real financial needs of the Church in Spain are,” since what the Church receives from State subsidies “does not meet even 30% of the Church’s pastoral expenses.”  State funds only cover 10% of the expenses of the Archdiocese of Madrid, the cardinal added.

Therefore, he continued, the “active solidarity of Catholics with the Church in Spain and in Madrid continues to be vitally essential and it must not decline neither in material volume nor in spiritual intensity.”