Anti-Catholic Myths: Sell the Vatican, Feed the World
Sarah Silverman, a comedienne whom some people claim to find funny, grabbed a lot of attention last week when a video of her October 9, 2009, appearance on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher was posted to YouTube. Silverman trotted out one of the silliest of modern anti-Catholic myths: that the buildings, grounds, and artistic holdings of Vatican City are worth enough money to solve the problem of world hunger.
Silverman claimed that the proceeds from such a sale, which she put at $500 billion, could "feed the whole f---ing world." It could, but at less than $85 per person, one has to ask: What will they eat tomorrow?
It's hardly worth responding to such silliness, because the point, of course, is not to solve world hunger but to attack Catholicism. Silverman proved that by trotting out another anti-Catholic myth (that the Catholic Church was somehow complicit in the holocaust) and making sexually explicit remarks about Pope Benedict XVI.
Yet, on another level, this particular myth demands a response, since, as Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights points out, "the Catholic Church operates more hospitals and feeds more of the poor than any private institution in the world. It also saved more Jews during the Holocaust than any other institution in the world."
Indeed, hospitals have their very origins in monastic communities. Modern secular philanthropy, driven by big-money donations from those who can more than afford them, is simply a pale reflection of the care for the poor and the hungry and the sick and the prisoner offered through the centuries by Christians who were often only slightly better off than those they helped (and sometimes even worse off).
While world hunger is an intractable problem, the healthcare crisis in the United States today could be resolved rather quickly if more people were willing to follow the example of the immigrant priests, brothers, and nuns who founded the Catholic hospital system in the United States in the 19th century. The destruction of Christian philanthropy in healthcare, and its replacement with the desire for profit, has brought us to where we are today.
For those monks and nuns and priests and laymen who dedicated their lives to the service of others, care for the body was intimately wrapped up with concern for the soul. Yet once concern for the soul is lost in pursuit of profit, it is hardly surprising that care for the body is tossed aside as well.
If Sarah Silverman is really concerned for the poor, and not simply hoping to make a quick buck through nasty attacks on the Catholic Church, she could begin by volunteering her time at any number of Catholic hospitals, food pantries, and soup kitchens. Along the way, she might even learn that man does not live by bread alone.
The Catholic Church needs to bring back the old Legion of Decency, with boycotts of any station, performer, movie, TV show, record, Web site, etc., that attacks our faith.
I agree with that statement. I remember the sermons as a child on the Legion of Decency.
“[T]he Catholic Church … saved more Jews during the Holocaust than any other institution in the world.” In fact, John Toland, in his biography of Adolf Hitler, wrote that the Catholic Church saved more Jews than all other churches, religious institutions, and rescue organizations COMBINED.
There is no limit to the attacks on the Church. The only way to fight this is with huge numbers of informed Catholics who live the word of the One True Holy Church.
Thanks for the great site. Please follow me on Twitter:
@CatholicRev
My new Catholic Apologetics Website:
How to Defend the Catholic Faith
yes, it is an attack. On the catholic leadership. They are acting like pharisees.
Maybe if they’d do what they preach they wouldn’t be targeted like this. The truth is that the Vatican has for more resources than they use.
They have raised the bar for the laity, but have they done it for themselves?
When they put their money were their mouth is and start acting instead of condemning good people for what they themselves do then and only then is Sarah Silverman off base.
For more hilarious work of Sarah Silverman, check out http://www.precioustimeny.com/blog/?p=5426
An excellent post in response to a truly stupid commentary by a boorish and repellent woman.
Let’s start the boycott: Get rid of your TV, stop going to movies, read, pray.
Great post, and right on. It is ridiculous that at the almost the same time Silverman attacked the Church, PBXVI canonized Fr. Damien for his great work with the lepers in Hawaii.
The fact is, Jesus Himself said that the poor would be with us until the end of the world. There will never be an end to poverty.
Poverty is not a blight on humanity. It is an opportunity for humanity to evolve into loving, caring human beings. It is for EACH of us to do something. It’s not for the big governments or organizations to eliminate. That will not happen. I believe it’s a personal mission for each of us to take on. Then, and only then, will there be real relief and a true show of charity.
These occassional tirades against the Church by various and sundry flagging stage perfomers to wrangle some press coverage are pretty routine and ignorable.
Congratulations on turning a slow-news-day filler piece into an opportunity to list some of our many accomplishments in healing the sick, relieving hunger and fighting poverty.
For years, anti-Catholics have condemned the Catholic Church for not changing to meet their own un-Godly desires. The Catholic Church has not changed in over 2,000 years. What makes them think it will now or ever?
One Church of Christ