The Filthy Rich Make Very Bad Catholics, or Do They?

WHEN news arrived that three of the wealthiest families in France were among those who had already donated more than €600 million to the restoration of the Notre-Dame, it was greeted by most people with a sense of profound relief. Among the billionaires who sent a few crumbs spiralling in the direction of the Friends of Notre-Dame de Paris were the owners of the luxury goods conglomerate, LVMH Group; the Bettencourt Meyers family, which owns L'Oreal (LRLCF); the Pinault family, which controls leading wood manufacturers, Kering (PPRUF); the oil and gas company, Total (TOT); tech and consulting firm Capgemini, which employs no less than 100,000 people in India; and leading French bank, Crédit Agricole.

Now, call me a cynic but there are two reasons why this development was not quite as selfless and benevolent as it appears. Firstly, it is a fact that wealthy families have donated their riches to the Catholic Church since time immemorial and the primary motive behind this act of apparent generosity - particularly in the case of monastic institutions - is that the aristocrats in question believe they are securing themselves a slice of the proverbial afterlife. The wealthy would even send their offspring to monasteries and nunneries in return for the religious community spending endless hours praying for their rotten souls. It is, therefore, rather less altruistic than it first appears and the quest for eternal life, as well as the hope that one can be a perfect bastard and still get away with it, far outweighs a commitment to one's community in general.

Which brings me neatly on to my second point, that of the highly questionable nature of not only accepting money from people who have acquired their wealth in a remarkably immoral fashion - and, being an amoralist, I say this from the perspective of Christianity itself - but of also using the money to restore a building in a city that is teeming with the desperate, the downtrodden, the destitute and the degraded. I am perfectly aware that the soul is considered superior to the body, but one would have thought that a religion which is allegedly centred around the life of a humble figure like Jesus Christ would use its exorbitant riches to improve the lives of its own flock.

Next time I see a bottle of L'Oreal perfume I will try to suppress all images of factory operatives squirting noxious substances into the eyes of a helpless creature and, instead, look to the heavens in gratitude. Similarly, when I hear about an ordinary French family being thrown onto the streets of Paris by Crédit Agricole I shall overlook the company's rapacious usury and make the sign of the cross.