A strange post, but one which might be helpful.

Read the piece at OSV which I am responding to here. The author, whose writing has certainly been helpful over the years in various ways, seems to have some gripe with bishops, and especially cardinals, having suitable housing.

I realize I just begged the question.

Most people who criticize the “opulence” of cardinals’ apartments in Rome have never been inside one (I have – including one of the apartments mentioned), nor are they aware of the history which led to the current arrangements (I am, at least more than most). If you are not aware, there is a “cardinals’ neighborhood” just to the east of St. Peter’s Square. The entire area was built up by Pius XI about a hundred years ago, for offices and, yes, for apartments. If you are a cardinal residing in Rome, this is typically where you live, unless there is some special circumstance which would require you to live somewhere else, such as being archpriest of one of the papal basilicas.

The apartments are large enough for an office, a bedroom, a kitchen, a chapel, and a spacious sitting room, sometimes another few rooms, and they are often decorated in keeping with their function – to offer to other prelates, and to any number of distinguished persons, including diplomats or even heads of state, a fitting place of reception. Cardinals receive all kinds of gifts which might furnish their quarters and remind them of their gracious benefactors.

As for paying rent and receiving salaries/stipends (not brought up but is connected) – well, imagine you are a globally visible prelate who has had a career as a bishop in another country or some other place in Italy over the span of decades, and you are sought after as a speaker in far away places – you will be constantly on the move, paying for your travel costs. People ask you for funding for their pious pet projects, some of them very large projects – all the time. You are responsible for hosting this group, that dignitary, and some other prelate, all in the same week. You have your own personal expenses – food, medicine, clothing (very particular and expensive clothing), liturgical implements, various (sometimes rare) books, and other odds and ends. Maybe you are even paying some assistant out of your own pocket as well. (I believe the full-time secretaries are compensated in some other way – though I’m not sure about that.) Should we add rent to this too, now?

Soon enough, that 4,000 Euro/month stipend (or thereabouts) doesn’t exactly seem “luxurious.” In fact, it is kind of measly. No, it’s not life in the slums, but it is not Richie Rich either.

Cardinals and other prelates ought to have quarters which befit their office and which honor the guests which they host, as noted above. We shouldn’t begrudge them for that.

Also, security concerns, for both residents and guests. Hello.

As for Francis’s living quarters, his own word on that matter was that his preference for the Casa S. Martha was on account of proximity to larger numbers of people – not because it is “simpler” – he rejected that, and he noted that the papal apartment (in the palace) is actually not that lavish at all, just tastefully decorated. So… so much for that.

As for the poor around the colonnade – they are of various types, and anyone who spends real time around the piazza (or in Rome) knows that the lion’s share of the Roman homeless and beggars are either mentally ill, addicts of some sort, a combination of those two, or are “professional beggars” of some kind. There are some exceptions – I have personally known one such case, who actively sought work and finally found it – but it is just farcical to argue that since some poor guy with schizophrenia and a serious alcohol problem sleeps in the tunnel by the parking garage near St. Peter’s, Cardinal So-and-So should live in some random residential quarter of Rome in an unremarkable apartment surrounded by who knows what sort of people accountable to who knows what kind of landlord. (And there are some CRAZY ones here – just think what Signora X, the Cardinal’s new landlord and upstairs neighbor, a young divorcee and a lover of night-life, would put His Eminence through, and for what? So some bloggers feel better about things? Give me a break.)

I don’t know how much any given cardinal knows about various housing crises around the world. But that is a little irrelevant to the fact that being a cardinal in Rome usually means you need an apartment, preferably almost on top of the Vatican. Luckily – there is a whole neighborhood designated for that function, where only cardinals and their staff live. It’s almost like Pius XI thought this through.

As for normal bishops, if they like living in their own house, great. If they have a very dignified house, preferably near the cathedral, great. If they want to live in a normal rectory with other priests, great. But many of the arguments above apply similarly. Yes, there can be abuses – as has been seen in past years, here and there (i.e. the “Bishop of Bling” incident)… But that is not the norm. So let’s stop the finger-wagging, shall we? Especially when such apartments are, in fact, standard-issue, and such houses are often part of the history and legacy of the diocese.

I want my bishops to live well so they are not hindered by temporal needs. It should be the last thing they need to worry about. And supplying prelates with nice temporalities is a way to thank them for their work and to remind them of the dignity of their office – and it is a way to honor Him who entrusted them with that office in the first place.