Working for free? No thanks.

And when they ask you to PAY to PLAY? Has this ever happened to you?

It happened to me! Given that several people from another country sing in my choir, last Christmas we thought it would be a good idea (as a tribute to their commitment) to offer a concert in their parish... the parish priest asked the choir for an expense reimbursement for light and heating!

The request was granted, again as a tribute to the singers from that country, but you decide...

It doesn't surprise me, given that many parish priests (and good company) have constant amnesia regarding their "life annuity," meant as living off the interest. After all, "they pay for it," right? They should only be thankful—not to their god, but to the people who still grant them money and favors.

Tenore wrote:

It happened to me! Given that several people from another country sing in my choir, last Christmas we thought it would be a good idea (in homage to their commitment) to offer a concert in their parish... the parish priest asked the choir for an expense reimbursement for light and heating!

The request was granted, again in homage to the singers from that country, but you decide...

As a non-objective user in this discussion, because I don't believe in Uncle Tom stories about the church being a money-eating machine, I say: I continue to disdain the church in light of the things that continuously emerge, while I move closer and closer to the individual, repudiating the institution; believing that the church's days are now numbered.

If it had been me, I would have published posters pasted on all the advertising spaces in the town with the following text:

"Once music was an homage to God, but today to celebrate music and thus God, the parish priest wants light and gas expenses, because he performs a job and not a creed; even he no longer believes in what he took his vows for and asks us for money despite the fact that the church owns 30% of Italian real estate, despite the IOR banks possessing 4 times the sum necessary to bail out the Italian public debt, despite these properties being exempt from any type of tax despite not being built in the Vatican State but within the Italian nation, despite the fact that in all the churches in the world money is collected during the offertory net of taxes, despite them receiving the annual 8 per mille on state revenues even though they have their own state. Music is a job, we should be paid, but instead we must pay to sing. In this case, we preferred to spend the money intended for the parish priest by avoiding making music, in order to print these posters and make our voices heard in a different way than by singing notes.

Long live the Vatican, long live the church, long live the parish priest... Just saying... Long live the truth, this time yes!"

Vaticano=vaticancro.