This whole conversation is rather silly. What business is it of yours what they consume? Besides, if you're worried about the expense, I wouldn't necessarily assume the parish is paying for all of that stuff. [....] And if priests want to spend their Mass and baptism stipends [*] on a nice bottle of vintage port, what is that to you? I remember something about casting a speck out of someone else's eye.
Indeed. I recall the
customary honorarium [*] for a
wedding Mass being substantial, and certainly enough money for a
fifth of good-quality distilled spirits. Even if the
best man stiffed the
altar boys who'd served the Mass, the priest had received enough to kick back some cash to them.
-------
Note
*: There's an important difference between the 2 terms: The amount of a
stipend is known--if not actually
agreed--in advance (so it can be take-it-or-leave-it), e.g., a "grad-student
stipend"; whereas an
honorarium is not agreed upon, being a
gift of gratitude or appreciation, as seems to be required by Counterreformation decrees of the Council of Trent, and later compiled into traditional Canon Law. I can't claim to know which term fits SSPX.
Topic: Non-Catholics Scandalized by Excessive Drinking at SSPX Sanford Priory (Read 11770 times)