No, I’m upset that they seem to feel they can blithely assume that everyone in the neighbourhood is Catholic and that everyone in the neighbourhood owes them a tithe. That said, eat me. I’m not asking for your sympathy, you overbearing oaf. And I really appreciate your reference to feminine men and women’s genitals as if they were insults, not to mention your casual reference to “freedom of speech” as if I were calling for brutal censorship of the church.
(For the record, I’m not an atheist.)
Well, Matt has the right to bitch, and Beeblebrox has the right to bitch about Matt bitching.
It seems to me that a Catholic priest in a historically French Catholic city is not off base sending out bulk mailings that assume that many of his neighbors are also his flock.
Right now, my perspective is skewed by my personal situation, so it just seems to me that if having junk mail addressed to you on the mistaken assumption that you’re Catholic is your biggest worry, count yourself a happy man.
Sorry, Ike. Next time I’ll be clear and say “You Goyim . . . .”
“15 (Canadian) dollars per worker?” Hell, what can you buy with 15 loonies anymore? A pizza?
So send 'em a pizza. Stick it in a box, route the package through Vancouver. Tell Father Savoie to feed his own needy ass with it.
I, too, will call out Beeblebrox for his repeated use of the word “pussy,” either calling or refering to ownership. Gay men are not women, you donkey-raping shit-eater. (I just love the way that trips off the tongue…)
Esprix
Man, now I’ve heard everything. Sympathizing with a church for losing their freedom of speech. Especially by complaining on a message board. Did someone call the feds and get them involved? Then freedom of speech has got nothing to do with it, dumbass.
Fair 'nuff. I did overuse the feminine in insulting the otherwise intelligent and reasonable Matt_mcl, but he is still being an oversensitive twit here.
What you don’t seem to get, you misogynistic DRSE, is that you are not only feminizing in your insults, you are showing your neanderthal attitude towards women.
Why do you loathe women so much that you insult gay men with a feminine slur?
Get a therapist and grow the fuck up, child!
Every minister likes to consider himself as a brave shepherd leading the lambs through green pastures and defending them at night from Infidel wolves. All this he does for a certain share of
the wool.
– Robert G. Ingersoll
There’s a reason the Church calls priests/ministers “pastors” and the parishoners/congregations “flocks.” Somebody’s getting fleeced. 
giggle Tithe! giggle
I thought those went out with feudalism 
And though Montreal is historically Catholic, it also has an extremely high immigrant population and has for the past 50 years, so I would no longer say it is very Catholic at all. I have the stats for Quebec, not for Montreal though, so no cite for now.
Pretty silly of that priest.
In this case, who cares what this priest assumed about Matt?
It isn’t about the Priest assuming Matt was Catholic. It was the arrogance he had to send out (in essence) “bills” to strangers, telling them (in essence) that they owed the church money. Oh my gosh, the nerve.
It seems obvious to me that you don’t NAG people to contribute, or to tithe. It’s beyond tacky. It’s unChristian, as far as I am concerned.
The original church I belonged to (I now attend a “reformed” version of it) sent such a letter to me. Telling me, (in stern terms) that I OWED them tithing. That was the death knell of my relationship with that church. NO church tells me that I owe them money.
I am beyond appalled that any priest would send a letter out to Matt, or anyone else. Is this standard procedure in the church? I certainly would assume not.
I had a related incident just yesterday. I was in DC for the semi-annual reunion/alumni board meeting of a community service organization I joined in college. On Sunday, we had our traditional send-off brunch. Around 1 P.M., several of the people at the brunch departed to go to Catholic mass. One of the women leaving (whom I’ve known for years, but not well) turned to me and said “want to come?”
I (very politely, mind you) said, “I’m not Catholic.”
She persisted - “Mass isn’t just for Catholics, you know!” and so on.
Shit, honey, the conversation appropriately ended when I said that I wasn’t Catholic. Perhaps I should have made myself more clear by telling her that she was worshiping a myth, and that, in my opinion, the Catholic faith has caused more evil in the world than any other organization in history?
Think she would have understood my polite demurrer then?
Sua
Now that sounds like a 21st century Communion, if I ever heard one. So much more concise than “Take, eat… this is my body.”
The presumption of debt to a church for services is offensive. Priests like that do a great disservice to the faith. My perception of organized religion has been coloured quite a bit by something that happened to my mother when I was born. Although my family was very poor, my mother regularly put (what was for us,) quite a large sum in the collection plate every Sunday. My birth was complicated, and my mother spent some time in hospital, consequently missing several weeks of church services. The pastor knew why the services were missed, but nevertheless, my mother returned home to find what amounted to a bill for her “missed” contributions in the mail.
I’m reminded of something some long-haired radical socialist Jew said once: “This is a House of God, and yet you have turned it into a den of theives.”
Sounds like someone put you on the mailing list of the church as a joke or something. They normally don’t send you the literature for tithes, etc, unless you already make some kind of contribution or someone maybe made a contribution in your name. I’m not talking about the “save the African children” literature, just the kind that it sounds like you got. At least, this is from my experience. YMMV
My WAG is that perhaps she wanted to reassure you that it doesn’t matter-you’re still welcome. That said, perhaps she could have said, “Well, even so, you’re welcome to come if you wish to do so.” Or something more polite like that.
I live in the same neighbourhood as matt_mcl and I received the same letter. The difference is that I received a similar letter for as long as I lived (I’m 46) with no stamps on the enveloppe, not even a “To the occupant” on it. I have never set foot in my parish church, Hell, the last time I went to church was for my father’s funeral, 10 years ago, so a personal contribution is out of the picture.
LaurAnge had it pretty much on the nose when she mentioned the fact that Montréal was historically Catholic (AFAIK, the church is still the largest landholder in the city), so the fact that a blanket letter is sent to every residence in some parts of town doesn’t surprise me, they just “assume” everybody is Catholic. OTOH, for the last 10 years or so, they had to sell buildings (up to and including churches, convents, etc.) because they no longer have the revenues, nor the congregations to justify them.
And no, in my time it was not “save the African children” litterature or donation that were given/asked. We “bought” des petits Chinois (little Chinese), a quarter apiece (circa 1960)
Matt:
Maybe it was your martyr’s complex that confused them.
tee hee, giggle, guffaw, larf, tee hee 
IIRC in the USA it was known as “Buying” the little “Pagan” children! (by my time in the early 70s it was “godfathering” – but they were still Pagan :rolleyes: – I never heard of the “buying” metaphor until I got to talking with older Catholics) ( Already into pagans in the 1950s! Boy is this a hip ‘n’ happenin’ Church! )
And somehow I have never received any shakedown mail from any church, anywhere I’ve lived. Maybe they pick up my evil heretical emanations and decide not to bother.
Sending people mail telling them (not asking them) what they owe for donations takes a lot of nerve. I think I’ll send out my wedding invitations with a reminder to people that they must buy us a gift, and it should be at least equal to the amount of money I’m spending per guest on the reception.:rolleyes:
Matt~
maybe you should nail the letter to the door of the church?
maybe leave the hammer and a box of nails?