“THE SELLING OF CHAPUT’S CHATEAU”:

Philadelphia’s Archbishop Chaput made a brave, but not entirely unexpected, move when he announced that the Archdiocese would be selling its 13,000 square foot, 3-story stone mansion at 5400 City Line Avenue. The sixteen-room, six-car garage structure sits on slightly more than 8 acres of land and has been described as a “baronial home.” Purchased for $115,000 in 1935 by Cardinal Dennis Dougherty at a time when the idea of a mansion seemed appropriate for a “Prince of the Church,” the opulent residence now risks being seen as an embarrassment of riches in the wake of financially driven closings of Catholic schools in the area.

Archbishop Chaput is no novice when it comes to selling expensive mansions for smaller living quarters. In 1999, as Archbishop of Denver, he sold the Denver bishop’s villa and moved into the diocesan seminary. …

The die-hards who call for 1st Century austerity fail to take into account the difference between opulent living and giving the best when it comes to what the ancient Jews believed about decorating the Second Temple of Jerusalem, built by Herod. Nearly 20-stories high and constructed by some 10,000 men, the white marble and gold edifice with striking bronze doors was considered to be a “footstool” of God’s presence. It was in this elaborate, incense-smoked place that Jesus himself prayed, and where, incidentally, he never once criticized as being too opulent or extravagant in its expression of adoration of the Father.

For over a century and a half, hard-working Catholics in the United States gave willingly to build churches that would stand the test of time. Nothing was too good for a temple, be it marble altar rails, towering frescoes or gilded high altars. Living a simpler “humbler” life should mean downsizing from a mansion to a house, not turning churches into concrete Brutalism bunkers that signify nothing.

more (via First Thoughts)