A reader writes:
Pretty simple question — but one to which I’ve never heard an intelligent answer. My parish charges $100.00 each to put a child through one season of religious ed (what we would have called "Sunday School" in my days as a Baptist). Shouldn’t this be considered simony? After all, the passing of the faith down to the next generation is part of the Church’s core mission — not some kind of extra added service, like a camping trip. It’s part of her duty, not something for which she may legitimately demand payment, to my way of thinking…
(I’m asking this, Jimmy, because my still-Baptist parents are scandalized by the very idea; they hear the ghost of Tetzel in this request, the coins still jingling in his cup. They’ve never heard of simony per se but they do definitely see the principle. Ironically, however, they see nothing at all wrong with an church counselor who happens to have some kind of psychology degree insisting $50 an hour for his services. I thought this was simony even when I was still a Baptist!).
I know how one might seek to defend this on canonical grounds. The 1917 Code contained a definition of simony, but this definition was eliminated from the 1983 Code as the result of a policy seeking to eliminate definitions from the new Code. The 1917 definition thus doesn’t have legal force any more, but it does shed light on the kind of things that are classified as the canonical crime of simony. Here’s the def:
Canon 727
ยง1. By divine law, simony is the studied will to buy or sell fo ra temporal price an intrinsically spiritual thing, for example, Sacraments, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, consecration, indulgences, and so forth, or temporal things so connected with spiritual things that without the spiritual they cannot exist, for example, ecclesiastical benifices, and so on, or a spiritual thing that is, even in part, the object of a contract, for example, the consecration of a chalice consecrated in sale.
One might look at this and say, "Okay, when the 1917 Code refers to ‘things,’ it has in mind something more concrete than Sunday school education"–or one would want to find some way to distinguish Sunday school education from the examples of simony listed here.
My trouble is that I’m not convinced (a) that it is possible to find a relevant distinction here and (b) my instincts tell me that charging for basic instruction in the Christian faith is just wrong.
Now, if the parish is charging a fee for optional teaching aids that a child is not required to have (e.g., workbooks or something) then I can see that.
I also can see having a suggested donation that will be used to pay the teachers for their time then I can also see that ("The worker is worth his wages," after all).
I perhaps could see charging a fee for an advanced course in something that is not basic catechesis.
But if they are really charging for basic instruction in the faith then it seems to me to be simony.
There’s a balance to be struck in the proclamation of the gospel, and Jesus illustrates that balance in the commission to preach that he gives to the disciples in Matthew 10. In verse 8, he tells them "Freely you have received, freely give." He then tells them in verses 9 and 10 not to take money but to depend on the donations they are given, saying that the laborer deserves his food.
It thus seems to me that the logical way to proceed for a parish would be to solicit donations for basic religious education but not to charge for it. The latter would strike me as simony.
So I’m with your parents on that one–assuming that’s what’s happening here and that it isn’t a misunderstanding of the parish’s suggested donation policy.
(NOTE: If the parish is committing simony, one would hope that they aren’t compounding the sin by refusing to grant waivers to those children whose parents can’t or won’t pay.)
