Italian bishops' leader backs Pope: no payments for sacraments
November 24, 2014
Moving to defuse a potential controversy, the president of the Italian Catholic bishops’ conference has said that he was not disagreeing with Pope Francis when he said that the sacraments are not for sale in Italy.
After the Pope delivered a homily in which he decried the practice of listing prices for baptisms, Masses, and blessings, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco declared: “Sacraments are not paid for in any way.”
When some Italian media outlets suggested that the cardinal was dismissing the Pope’s remarks, a spokesman for the Genoa archbishop said that in fact the cardinal’s statement was “intended to reiterate the Pope’s argument that there must be no commerce in sacred things.”
Cardinal Bagnasco said that while the faithful are encouraged to make offerings to the Church, there is never any “material compensation” required for the sacraments. He acknowledged that priests “can always to better” in helping the faithful to understand the distinction between contributing to the support of the Church and paying for the administration of the sacraments.
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