12823: Reply to: 12818: Aristide and paintings: From Bob Corbett

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

I was surprised by the claim in the post that as a priest Aristide would
have no personal possessions.  This is simply a mistaken notion.  There
are different sorts of priest within the Roman Catholic Church and there
are some orders of men who do take radical vows of poverty and have no
money or possessions other than perhaps a few prayer books etc.

Aristide was NOT such a priest and was in a more typical order which gives
the priest some small salary and allows the priest to have some amounts of
private money. As such the Aristide, or any priest in such an order, might
well have various privately owned items and there would be nothing at all
to prevent him from having paintings.

The post is simply based on very incorrect factual information about the
nature of the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Bob Corbett