The Princes of the Church

We were served magnificently at the bishops' table but the Archbishop himself dined modestly on a few vegetables and milk.  I could not help thinking, of course, of our breadlines, and our cramped quarters.  It is not only the Archbishop's palace which is a contrast, but every rectory in our big cities, and even in country sections.  Only in the mission fields is the rectory as poor as the homes of the workers round about.  One can understand the ideas of a functional society and the needs of doctors for cars and telephones and of the lawyer and teacher for books and space, but the ordinary family has need of space too for his little church which is his family.

For Christ himself, housed in the tabernacle in the Church no magnificence is too great, but for the priest who serves Christ, and for the priesthood of the laity, no such magnificence, in the face of the hunger and homelessness of the world, can be understood...--Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness, pg. 217.