UNITED STATES
Questions from a Ewe
This might strike readers as unusual but sometimes I just don’t know what to say.
Earlier this month I received an email from the Pontifical North American College (PNAC) inviting me to join its rector on a pilgrimage. PNAC is the US bishops’ seminary in Rome. Somehow, I do not think of myself as being on the PNAC’s “A” list for invitations to anything. Nonetheless, I received the invitation.
Maybe some readers would like to join the PNAC trip so here’s a link to the flyer advertising the trip.
Receiving the invitation is not what left me speechless. It was the pilgrimage’s description and price…$7,699 per person for a 9 night luxury cruise on the Mediterranean. There is also an option for $12,399 per person for folks with more discerning tastes. The flyer describes free-flowing champagne, butlers, room service, shoe shine service, spas and marble-clad bathrooms…you know…all the amenities Jesus had. I am sure there will be reflection exercise on “where would Jesus cruise” and “what kind of marble would inspire Jesus to excrete.”
To put this in perspective, the global annual median salary in 2012 was estimated at about $1,225 USD. Thus, the modest per person pilgrimage package, in the name of Jesus, is equivalent to about 6 people’s annual income. About every day and a half on the cruise, each of these fine pious folks will burn through the equivalent of one person’s entire annual income. The more luxurious package equates to 10 people’s annual income, burning through more than a person’s annual income equivalent per day.
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