Mind-boggling numbers for the traditional Christmas lunch of Sant'Egidio which welcomed the poor in the churches of many Italian cities. Confirming the bad theology that desacralizes churches to transform them into canteens. And relegating the Christmas mass to a superfluous or accessory event. But if you don't put Real Bread at the center, what kind of charity is there that we want to offer to the poor??
by Andrea Zambrano (27-12-2018)
They quote the Gospel to feel right with everyone. But they choose ad hoc quotes and avoid the others. “There is more joy in giving than in receiving” is the claim of Sant'Egidio for their traditional Christmas lunch in the churches. One might wonder where the equally evangelical has gone “man does not live by bread alone”, but it would certainly have ruined the party for the powerful multinational charity, ever closer to an NGO.

Lunches in church. For Christmas 2018, coinciding with i 50 years of activity of the reality of Andrea Riccardi & Vincenzo Paglia no expense was spared: beyond 240 thousand people in 77 Countries of the world, 60 thousand in Italy alone says the Sant'Egidio statement. Everyone in church, wrapped up: from Florence to Rome, and then Naples, Genova, Messina, Milano, Bari, Torino, Pisa, Novara, Padova, Catania, Palermo, Trieste, Reggio Calabria and many other cities in Italy and around the world. Even in Indonesia.
An immense table in the churches. Now it's not even surprising anymore. The poor as a theological category has become the supreme objective of any pastoral-ecclesial activity. And who better than Sant'Egidio, which inaugurated the bad theology of using churches as refectories, dormitories and leisure centers of any type, could honor this “sacred” principle?
Che deriva – lo abbiamo già detto – da una concezione rahneriana della storia dove il mondo stesso si fa chiesa da adorare e con il quale mischiarsi.
Con la campagna #salviamolechiese abbiamo abbondantemente denunciato questa deriva di desacralizzare le chiese. E lo diciamo utilizzando una parola che lo stesso cardinale Ravasi ci ha autorizzato a pronunciare nelle sue linee guida ad usum delle chiese dismesse, che però potremmo tranquillamente applicare qui. Infatti nel testo del Pontificio Consiglio per la Cultura si ammette l’utilizzo delle chiese come mense per i poveri e per usi solidali. Quelli appunto delle multinazionali della carità.
Tutti attovagliati, so, ma stando ben accorti ad allontanare con grande ipocrisia il Padrone di casa. Ipocrisia rivelatrice, o se vogliamo, prove queen that desacralizing can and must be done and does not only apply to poor abandoned churches, but it must also apply to those who host Holy Mass every Sunday, but if necessary they can also bring out the tables.
Emptying the tabernacle is equivalent to telling Jesus: “Forgive us, we are doing something where you have nothing to do with it. We'll take you somewhere else so you can stay calm somewhere else.". We could quibble for hours on the bad theology that animates these lunches, but we know that it would be a waste of breath because you either have sacred sensitivity or you don't.
Only one thing comes to mind. The pompous statement from Sant'Egidio speaks of exorbitant numbers, of participants beyond all expectations and sold-out churches. But who knows in how many of these churches mass was celebrated on Christmas Day. We imagine very few given that the tables had to be ready for lunch time as documented by some photos that readers sent us.
But in any case on the Sant'Egidio website there is no news of a mass preceding the lavish lunches. No photos.
So, let us understand: for Christmas Day the Mass has become optional and Jesus Christ removed from his tabernacle to satisfy the need to eat in church. It is useless to ask if there were – perhaps – suitable halls or refectories near the churches. It is useless to ask because it would not have made the news and above all it would not have satisfied the theological vision of the church as a profane place where the Church meets with the world.
And consistently confirm that these banquets are nothing other than the logical continuation of a conception of the mass understood exclusively as a fraternal banquet, as a friendly agape, emptied by years and years of abuse of its sacrificial dimension, it remained only as a canteen of food which, if necessary, can be replaced with tortellini with meat sauce. It's all extremely coherent.
But if Mass is taken away from the poor on Christmas Day, what else has been offered for their salvation, beyond the panettone? “Man does not live by bread alone”. How falsely charitable is this outburst of kindness towards the poor, to whom bread is given to satisfy their bellies, but not that for the soul on the very day in which that bread became flesh for eternity.
(source: lanuovabq.it)
source – https://anticattocomunismo.wordpress.com/2018/12/27/a-natale-non-ce-posto-per-il-bambino-gesu-nelle-chiese/