Reply to Catholic Mass today seemed to endorse austerity and anti-SNAP benefits?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here is the lectionary for this Sunday:

https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

It has been set for a long time, so the appearance of the one out four passages in which Paul talks about how the the early Christians worked to feed themselves instead of relying on the communities where they traveled to evangelize to provide charity.

If an idiot priest chose to take this one verse out of context and interpret it to mean that there shouldn’t be SNAP, well that’s not a surprise because it’s a known fact that there are MAGA priests, but that is certainly not the only way to interpret it, nor is it consistent with other passages like the story of loaves and fishes.

Now, if someone wanted to interpret it to mean that Christians who travel to Evangelize should be very careful not to burden the communities they visit then I would agree. [/quote]

I’m OP. The priests didn’t literally say “SNAP” or “welfare” or “EBT” or any other gov assistance terms in the news and viral on social media the last few weeks — that was me reading between the lines. It just seemed awfully coincidental two Catholic churches which are totally unaffiliated with each other had the same reading and two priests had similar interpretations and expansions essentially demonizing poor people on welfare as lazy, idle, and lacking dignity — albeit the hometown priest was much more aggressive and even used some old school urban “welfare queen” dog whistles.[/quote]

Every Catholic church in the US, maybe in the world, uses the same lectionary (a document that assigns readings to days), so it's not really a "coincidence" that two Churches would use the same readings this Sunday.  But the priest didn't choose them.

I'm not defending his choice to interpret it that way.  The Catholic church is very much in favor of feeding people, and does a lot of work towards that goal.  This is MAGA infecting the church, and not the position of the church as a whole.

Here is a statement from one of the top Catholic archbishops on the SNAP issue.

https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/archbishop-broglio-urges-funding-lifesaving-programs-and-end-federal-government-shutdown

I disagree with the USCCB on many things.  But not on this.  [/quote]

Interesting. I didn’t know the readings were the same everywhere. I guess I've never attended Mass twice in the same weekend or day. It was totally random that I just kept listening to the live feed of my hometown church.

[b]I remain suspicious this reading was chosen for this weekend with everything in the news. [/b]I didn’t feel comfortable with the reading and the even crueler sermons after. It didn’t feel Catholic to me. And I know my husband and I weren’t the only two people in the pews side-eying what we were hearing. [/quote]

Remain as suspicious as you like, but current events had absolutely nothing to do with that reading being this Sunday. [/quote]

Okay, we’ve covered that. I guess the more concerning part would be priests in different regions of the U.S. taking that allegedly random assigned reading to launch into racist or at least classist welfare queen tropes and demonizing the modern underclass as lazy moochers with no dignity. While those same tropes are being trafficked on the news, on podcasts, used by politicians to shut down the government, and racist videos with those themes are going viral on social media at a scale I’ve never witnessed in my life.[/quote]

It isn’t “allegedly random”. These readings are on a 3-year cycle, as someone else has already posted. They are published WELL ahead of time.

Also, did the priests actually say all that stuff, or are you simply assuming they did?

OP, can you post the videos, if they were recorded? I’d love to see what was actually said and not what PPs assume was said. I’m guessing it’s Biblically-based and not some lecture about current events. [/quote]

I’m certainly not going to dox two priests and two churches my family attends, so don’t ask again.

It is your contention that priests are totally oblivious to current events and the government shut down and its impact on SNAP? They are also oblivious that a major theme being pushed by the MAGA right wing is low and middle class Americans are lazy and entitled and if they can’t afford soaring food costs — or soaring housing, college and student loans, health care, a car, kids or a wedding — it’s their own fault because they don’t work hard enough? Compared to model immigrants who will sleep on a floor and work 100 hours a week. President Trump just this week told Fox News this week Americans are lazy and talentless and that’s why we need millions of foreign visa students and workers annually.[/quote]

How can anyone discern what was actually said at the Mass if we can’t hear it for ourselves?

And I don’t believe it’s “doxxing” a priest to put a link to a publicly available video. Most of the Catholic churches around here have pretty big congregations, so no one is going to know who you are if you just give the name of the local parish. 
[/quote]

I’ve already listened twice, as I went back to listen and confirm the reading. I have not mischaracterized the dialogue. And again, the priest located several states away was worse than the local.[/quote]

What did the priest say? [/quote]
 
Two priests in two different regions of the country who think the poor should starve if they don't have a job or a job paying them enough. The poor need tough love and need to discover the dignity of hard work! Two maybe three jobs, if needed! And this posture is totally unrelated to the right wing regressive austerity garbage being astroturfed around the country and parroted by Trump, Vance, and most Republicans. :roll: [/quote]

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