Mr. Pope, please sweep your own doorstep first
The current pope is advocating for the poor. It’ll cost money. Not surprisingly he was in North America this last week.
This country, along with western Europe are indeed the major source of funds moving through Holy See’s banks, the very banking the pope himself suggested needing some reform.
Meanwhile the local Archdiocese is shuffling accounts to put money out of reach of lawyers seeking recompense for deeply marred childhoods. This money sequestration actually started decades ago when the sex abuse first gained public traction.
Recall that in 2010 the Archdiocese was closing multiple parishes for lack of funds but had a handy million plus in 2011 to move an amendment.
Grandma used to say one should sweep their own doorstep first. While the current pope may indeed sleep off campus as it were there would seem to be plenty of gold adornment and treasures* that could fetch a pretty penny on eBay.
He is of course right about the climate. But somehow advocating for increased birth rates seems counterintuitive to reaching economic and climate equilibrium.
As for equality, an entire panoply of issues in and of itself, there remains that stumbling block of why women are treated to second class status, and given not but a ridiculous iconography of virgin birth.
The Roman Catholic Church will survive Pope Francis. That is an institutional climate he should be acting to change but he won’t prevail. Money, adultery, abuse, misogyny are all Vatican predilections built on now a millennia of years.
It’s nice he came, it’s nice he raised some issues of global concern. He didn’t say much about his institution’s internal contradictions or what they might sell off to aid the disadvantaged.
It seems he ought to be focusing on his organization sweeping its own doorstep first. Well, that is what grandma seemed to imply.
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*Readers may recall an anecdote floating around when the papal visit to Colorado occurred. A teen of native Mexican blood passed through the reception line. When his moment before the pope came he asked that the Vatican return his people’s stolen treasures. Your assumption on how that was received is correct.
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