Once A CATHOLIC.

[pendy]

That is outrageous! Why don't we start our own church, the Accywebbers Ecumenicists, register it in Bavaria, and use the money for beer? We'd make sure you got plenty, Mik, even if we have to send you the money most of the time!

[Mik Dickinson]

This is the way they are over here.I used to hang around with a Bavarian lad whos parents paid him 50 DM, thats about 17 quid, a month so he would got to church 2 a month.The reason being was they did not want the family to be talked about! Once a Catholic always a Catholic apparently

[Acrylic-bob]

I seem to dimly recall that at sometime in the very late sixties Sacred Heart introduced a sort of tithe scheme, whereby parishoners placed a certain percentage of their weekly income in envelopes and handed them in during the Sunday Mass. Anyone here remember that?

[pendy]

Yes, they did have the envelopes, I don't remember it as being a percentage, but certainly they kept a check on who had put in and who hadn't. My mother was a long-term invalid, and had a dispensation for attending Mass, but Father Stack (I think it was) used to pop round to collect her envelope if another member of the family hadn't put it in the box.

[mez]

yes i too remember putting money in the envelopes, i cant remember how much though , but i used to go to st marys church up ossy anyway, i prfared it there, i went to st, marys school any way.

[Acrylic-bob]

Funnily enough I have just been looking at the programme of events for the opening of Sacred Heart Church in 1869, where it is announced that A Pontifical High Mass would be sung by the Rt. Rev. William Turner, Bishop of Salford. Attendance was by Admission Cards which could be obtained from several outlets.
Prices: Front Seats - 5 Shillings,
Second Seats - Two Shillings and sixpence,
Back Seats - One Shilling.
A luncheon was later held at the Town Hall, admission to which was 10 shillings.

A Solemn High Mass was celebrated the next day, it being Sunday, for which parishoners were tactfully reminded that 'Silver will be thankfully received at the door.'

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[JohnW]

Hells bells and buckets of blood! For a family of four, in the 'best seats' and including lunch would have cost Three Pounds. I doubt many people earned that much in a week in 1869! No wonder the Catholic Church is one of the richest institutions in the world.

[Trickiann]

I am a non practising catholic.................tried to get away but cant quite give up the saint thing. Mind you arent angels in now and yet we all knew about them from being very young.I made my first communion in1968 at St Mary's in ossy three things still stay with me ,I made £1. 3 -/ and 6d, I broke my heart because I thought I was not able to make it (i Lied to my mum about a jam butty) and I wore a brace that any food could get stuck to, imagine my horror after being told of hell and damination if anyoneother thana priest touched the host!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who remembers Father Waterson, he told me because I had a disability I was one of God's chosen ones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hey I wanted to tell him I wish he'd chosen someone else.

[Acrylic-bob]

I tried a bit of a comparison with income to give some vague idea of meaning.
We know that in 1878 Mr J.Lomax of Clayton Hall forked out £1,500 to provide the high altar at Sacred Heart. Which was designed by C.W.Pugin and carved by Easy and Powell of Dublin. In 1921 the Church secured an allowance of 15 shillings and ninepence for a widowed mother who lost her son in the war. This gives some idea of what was considered 'decent' at the time. So, for the sake of argument and ease of calculation, I will consider that the basic minimum wage in 1878 was 10 Shillings. There was no 'Basic Minimum Wage' at that time of course, but the concept provides a useful benchmark for comparison. Given a current basic minimum wage of £160., I calculate that Mr Lomax's gift would, today, cost him somewhere in the region of £480,000.

Of course, a simple comparison like this cannot reflect anything like the true value of such a gift, nor indeed what impact it would have had on the parishoners of the time. Given that the general population were a lot less worldy than they are today, and had next to no knowledge or experience of High Art and Architecture, I would hazard the guess that it's impact was substantial, if not sensational.
As I have said before, you can say what you like about the Church, but they do know how to put on a good show!

[JohnW]

Yea well A-B, if we had their money, we could put on a bluddy good show too.