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Taking to heart Pope Francis’s call for austerity, a priest in Columbia has decided to sell the white Mercedes Benz E200 convertible his family gave him.
Father Hernando Fajid Alvarez Yacub, chaplain of Saint Michael’s Cemetery in Santa Marta, was given the car a year ago as a gesture of gratitude for caring for his three younger siblings after their parents died.
But after the Pope told seminarians that “It hurts my heart when I see a priest with the latest model car”, Father Alvarez Yacub decided to give up his Mercedes.
The priest told reporters that the money he gets from selling the car — valued at $NZ80,500 — will be given to members of his family.
He said he’s ridden a burro, a horse, a bicycle and a bus, to say nothing of walking on foot around his town of Santa Marta. In his words, “I have no problem with that.”
Father Alvarez Yacub’s decision was applauded in Colombia, which is predominantly Catholic.
The president of Colombia’s Catholic Bishops Conference, Cardinal Ruben Salazar, said that the Catholic Church in Latin America has always embraced austerity.
He said the estimated 10,000 Colombian priests in the country each receive the equivalent of about $NZ794 a month.
“We priests undoubtedly have to be very conscious that we have to live with our people, in the conditions in which our people live,” he said.
This is not the first time Father Alvarez Yacub has made headlines. Recently, he came up with the idea of “virtual funerals” for family members unable to attend the funerals of their loved ones in other cities, allowing them to follow the ceremony via webcam.
The priest also installed a cell phone blocker in his parish to prevent calls from interrupting Mass.
“The issue of cell phones during Mass is a real problem,” he said at the time. “Some people have those special ringtones….That’s why I bought this blocker.”
Sources:
Image: MSN
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