The Pope is in town, so everyone mug him.

“The Catholic Church has too much wealth. The Pope talks of how people should spread their wealth, maybe the Pope ought to sell off the stuff that the Catholic Church has.”   I’m hearing this over and over and over again right now. So let’s talk this out logically. There is quite a bit of sarcasm involved in my discussion just because everyone pulls this meme out over and over and over and over again and fails to even think beyond the 140 character twitter post.

But I DO THINK beyond the sentence and what you get is what goes when you actually THINK about a subject.

After the sale, this will be in the bathroom of Bill Gates, good luck seeing it there.

First of all, the Pope owns nothing. None of the items in the neither Vatican, nor elsewhere are his. When he became a Priest many years ago, he took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.  He can talk all he wants about selling all of your possesions, because he owns nothing. His experience in his previous location has severely colored his outlook on some of the basic tenets of the religion. But that’s for another discussion. 

George Soros' new 'man cave'

So sure! Let’s rock this bitch right out of the gate, shall we? So the Vatican decides to start an auction. They’ve cleared out all the movable artworks from the Vatican city and we’ll start with selling the Buildings of Vatican city.  For, what?, 300 years or so, we’ve all had the opportunity to go in and worship there. We’ve been able to see the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Our eyes have gazed upon the Last Supper painted on the wall of another chapel. Millions upon millions of people –whether or no they were Catholic did not matter – have been able to see these wonderful, masterful works of art.

Oh, by the way, since I’m on it. You DO know that those works made by artisans were tithes to the Church, right? As a practicing Catholic, you were expected to tithe 10% of your earnings to the church. This is somewhat a standard practice with many religions, but it’s the Catholic Church who gets dinged on it. Muslims are supposed to give 1/5 of their earnings in charity but you hear no one bitch if they don’t.   BUT………..I digress.

So these artisans may not have money to give to the Church.  What they DO have is a talent.  Those beautiful wood carved altars, magnificent stained glass windows, intricately embroidered vestments were all made by a craftsman as a donation to the Church.  Craftsmen, when donating an item to the church, believed they were offering to God, so whatever was offered was the BEST these people did. You didn’t go in half-assed and give God your castoffs.

But whatever, man! The poor NEED it NOW! Nevermind that there have ALWAYS been poor people. Nevermind that there has ALWAYS been rich people who refuse to help those.  Nevermind that most of the poverty out there these days has NOTHING to do with lack of food, lack of water, lack of opportunity.  Almost all the poverty out there these days is driven by governments to control the masses.  Venezuela has bare shelves, not because they have no food, no things to put on those shelves, but because THE GOVERNMENT CONTROLS EVERYTHING AND MAKES IT THAT WAY!Most of the countries’ with poor people have plenty of rich people stealing from them to get more stuff.

So let’s get to that part, shall we? So the Vatican is sold for like $20 BILLION to say…….George Soros. All the people who lived in the Vatican City are now out of their homes. The honor guard are let go, and the Pope gets a nice walkup in Rome. Ol’ Georgy moves in and plops his big-ass bed right under the altar of St. Peter. No more tours, no more looking at the Sistine Chapel…if you want to do that, you’ll need to be a pal of George Soros.

Which begs the question:  If George Soros had $20 BILLION to spend on the Vatican, how come he didn’t use some of that money to ‘help the poor’?

Oh yes, that’s right. PEOPLE are able to get as rich as they want off the backs of the poor, that horrible, misogynistic stubbornly-refusing-to-change-to-the-whims-of-the-day Catholic Church MUST PAY FOR THEIR INABLITY TO BE WHAT ‘WE’ WANT!!!!!  Do you HONESTLY think that the Catholic Church has stayed a predominant religion for over 2,000 years by catering to every whim of every generation????

The dude who made Minecraft is gonna put this in his dining room

But we’re not even to the good part here! The Vatican has now sold off all their ‘stuff’ so that other rich people can have that ‘stuff’ and now they have money to give away.  BTW, nothing is for free. Even if someone gives you something, it’s costed them something.  That ‘free’ thing will cost YOU something as well for receiving it. Taking money and items from people, even if it is given freely, has repercussions. If you take from someone else because of a WANT you have, and that person has given out of their own stores of funds monies that they NEED…..YOU ARE STEALING!

So if a government accepts funds for food and items for their poor people, when in fact that government has plenty of their own funds and stores to take care of their own people, THEY ARE STEALING!! Venezuela, if they throw their hand out and whine ‘please! Please help our poor!’,…are not only STEALING but COVETING MONEY and causing more sin in their country. But hey! Chavez needs another yacht for his daughter! Who CARES if others are starving in that country……. SHE. NEEDS. A YACHT!

So now the Church has the money to ‘help the poor’. Lovely! Great! Which poor? In what form with that ‘help’ be? Will it be outright cash? Or will it be food? How much ‘help’ should each poor person get? Is the Church just feeding them? Or are they building houses for them? Are they getting them clothes? Is it health care they need? What will be the responsibility of the church to give to the poor?

Oh and by the way, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ALREADY DOES THIS!!!

And they manage to do this without selling something? INCONCEIVABLE!

Ever heard of Catholic Relief Services? Little Sisters of the Poor? Any Hospital that is “St. ” started out as a Catholic run hospital. St. Mary’s, Mercy in my hometown were both run by the Catholic Church at one time. Mercy was called ‘The Sisters of Mercy Hospital’ when I was young.  But hey! THAT’S NOT ENOUGH!! The world must have ALL OF THE POSSESIONS of the Catholic Church! THAT WILL TEACH THEM TO TELL US WE’RE SINNING!!

Wanna talk about a tough crowd!! OMG they have their work cut out for them!

And after all that…………….the money is gone. The Church has given all of its’ funds away to ‘help the poor.’ And as you look around……………THERE ARE STILL POOR PEOPLE………..well damn! As long as there are greedy people (which is a sin, btw) there will always be poor. As long as there is evil on this earth, there will always be poor.

So in honesty, it’s not the riches of the Catholic Church that needs to be given away, but the beliefs. If you follow the tenets of the Church, follow the 10 commandments, allow for there to be a deity whose rules are not-fluid to the whims of the generation, THEN you will have less poverty.

But people are too stuck on greed, covetousness and an abject fear of someone telling them “NO” to allow that to happen. Guess what? EVERY DAY of your life, you sin. EVERY DAY of your life you do something to harm others………..in fact, the thought of ‘selling off all the Church owns’ is a sin of coveting what is not yours.