Digital Donkey

The verdict is out. Ren Ci founder Ming Yi and his aide Raymond Yeung have been found guilty of $50,000 wrongfully taken from the charity, so says today’s Straits Times front page.

In the article, it reads that

The judge said that though Ming Yi claimed to have made many sacrifices for his “baby” – Ren Ci – these were undermined by his lavish lifestyle, which suggested that the sacrifices were not unduly great.

As I read this, what came to mind immediately was not Father Joachim Kang, who has already paid his dues (though some Catholics don’t seem to think he deserves a second chance and have publicly voiced it). What came to mind were Oakley sunglasses, platinum class credit cards, and swimming pools.

I recalled a conversation I once had with a Christian bookshop owner. He owned one of the biggest Christian bookshops in Singapore, and in our friendly conversation, this Catholic revealed to me his disillusionment with some of the priests in Singapore who were his customers. One, he said, wore a gold watch and regularly flashed his platinum credit card when purchasing items from his shop.

“Is it necessary for a priest to carry around a platinum credit card?” he asked me rhetorically. “Just a simple credit card will do. And why must he wear a gold watch to show off?”

On the other end of the scale, we had and still have frugal priests. I remember when Archbishop Gregory Yong passed away, Msgr Francis Lau who was his vicar general recalled his life of frugality. He remembered with fondness of the bishop who mended his own clothes, and drove an old car (whose battery sometimes couldn’t start) to meetings which including the Singapore president!

Msgr Lau himself is no less frugal and is really a humble man. Even though he was once vicar general to Archbishop Yong, he showed no unhappiness when he was assigned the position of the assistant rector of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. Some then had seen it as a “demotion” from his position as parish priest of Holy Cross. But when I spoke to him, obedience was foremost in his mind and he showed it through his actions.

I still remember the interview I had with him earlier this year. He was speaking about his inspiration for obedience which came from the Charge of the Light Brigade. “Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to question why, theirs but to do and die”, he had said.

In his office is a computer that still has its 3 1/2 floppy disk drive installed. How long he has been using that computer, we can only guess. But why buy a new one if the old one can still be used? That’s probably something that we who change handphones every two years can learn from. (Raise your hand if you’re guilty. I am.)

Obedience and frugality are two characteristics  we laypeople expect of those who give their lives to the Church. The religious, in fact, take up vows of obedience, poverty and chastity. And when people see them, they expect to see models for obedience, poverty, and chastity. We don’t always see that, and we sometimes get disillusioned. It’s not limited just to those in the Church.

While Ming Yi’s trial was ongoing, a businessman shared with me over a bowl of noodles in a hawker centre, that he was disgusted with the lifestyle that Ming Yi was revealed to lead. The conversation turned to a pastor of a mega-church in Singapore who is known to keep several sportscars in his garage.

The point is that people see the lifestyles that religious, clergy, pastors, and ministers don’t match with those of the founders of their religions or orders, people feel that there is something wrong there.

Some years ago, a brouhaha was raised in The New Paper when a parishioner complained to the tabloid that the Franciscans had a swimming pool in their friary (it’s a lap pool, actually). A family member said to me, “How can these friars who are supposed to be living in poverty have a swimming pool in their backyard? It’s just not right.”

To live in poverty is not something that is good. In a talk given by Father David Garcia, OP at Blessed Sacrament Church recently, he cautioned Jesus did not say if you were poor, you would inherit the kingdom of God. Poverty, he defined, is the lack of necessary resources. It is bad and no one should live in poverty. What is a must, however, is to strive to live a more simple lifestyle. To vow poverty is good, and chosen poverty can be heroic.

Incidentally, Father Garcia doesn’t own a mobile phone or a car. He bought a secondhand bicycle, a racer, for $35 and fixed it up himself. He uses that or takes public transport to go to work.

Asking the Franciscans about some of their more expensive items they use, such as Oakley sunglasses (they were a gift from a parishioner) and Mercedes minivans (they are more fuel efficient and in the long run costs less), I learned that they make a distinction between living in poverty and living with the spirit of poverty.

It is easy then to criticise religious and clergy for the lavish lifestyles that they live, but we often forget that as Christians, people are also looking at us and wondering if our own lifestyles match those of our founder. If we are to ask our religious and clergy to live a more simple life, a more frugal life, then we too have to do the same. Just as when we see a priest living in frugality and are inspired by that, so too will our priests who see us living in frugality be inspired by us. They need us as much as we need them.