For Catholics in doubt about where to turn for help in this time of economic downturn, a Life4Seekers website set up by the Catholic Enquiry Office of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has a valuable suggestion: pray to St. Matthew (www.life4seekers.co.uk/uncertainty/st-matthew-the-apostle.html, with a hat tip to Clerical Whispers at http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/2009/01/workers-worried-in-recession-should.html).And who is Matthew? Why, the patron saint of accountants, bankers, bookkeepers, customs officers, financial officers, guards, money managers, Salerno, Italy, security forces, security guards, stock brokers, tax collectors--so the Life4Seekers site informs us.
Comforting to know that for help to get out of financial crisis, we can pray to the patron of the very folks who have put us into said crisis in the first place. Or is it?
Is it, instead, a reminder that, for those of us who are Catholic, we might as well expect those who hold all power in their hands on earth to continue holding all power in heaven--at least, in the fantasy world of church officials?
