i'm not a hardcore catholic, but i know a lot of bible stories. hey, i didn't spend 8 years at a catholic school for nothing.

but anyway, the gospel on sunday was about the Good Samaritan. the story of the Good Samaritan is about helping other people and loving your neighbors.

i like the story of the Good Samaritan, but i thought the way the priest related it to life was rather disappointing. so the priest on sunday was from india. i'm pretty sure his diocese sent him here to collect money. he talked about poverty, child labor, homelessness, hunger, children being sold off to pay debt. then he started asking us for money. he said it would only cost $300 to build a house and if we donated $300, it would be very nice of us. just like the Good Samaritan. helping people we don't even know.

i honestly didn't like the way he asked for money. i'm not saying it's not good to give if you have something to give, but it's not cool if you go to church just to have your priest ask you for money. he didn't even explain the story of the Good Samaritan. if i didn't learn it in school, i wouldn't have known what it meant (because of course, you're not supposed to interpret the bible literally, everything in it is symbolic).

so who is my neighbor? yesterday's priest didn't even try to answer it.

and besides, i don't think it's cost effective to send a priest here to ask for donations. say, it costs ~$2000 (this is low estimate i think) to send a priest here from some faraway country. add to that lodging and food. if what he said was true ($300/house), coming here would mean roughly 7 houses were left unbuilt because he had to come here. it would probably cost about $10 to make a phone call and ask for donations. it doesn't take a genius to do the math. all they had to do was make sure they were talking to a real diocese. check with the Vatican. then our home priest could just tell us that sad story about india and we'd try to help out. you really just have to authenticate the diocese you're talking to cuz we all know how bad poverty is in a lot of places.

it makes me partially mad that a priest (who supposedly vowed to live in poverty) gets to travel around the world and eat good food while 7 houses are left unbuilt and the people in his parish are still starving, homeless and whose only choice is to sell their children to become corporate slaves so they can pay off their debts.

then today at work, i was reading the news online. one of the main stories (on front page) was about the $660 million settlement the LA Archdiocese made with "500 alleged victims of clergy abuse." it's f------- crazy!! now we know the catholic church has that much money, and they're only using it to save the asses of their priests from going to trial for the things they did (i don't think 500 people would lie about the same thing, especially if the ones involved were from the religion they grew up believing in).

so i was just thinking, that money could've gone to india. and to every other super poor country. imagine how many shelters could've been built, how many people wouldn't have been hungry at least for a day, how many children wouldn't have to be slaves for a day. i think it's wrong to spend $660 MILLION to settle a case caused by irresponsible priests, who supposedly promised to serve god and the church. they really shoulve let those priests go to trial and maybe go to jail and try to be more cost-effective by actually applying the story of the Good Samaritan to real life.