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That was my point. The local groups, Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul, the Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of the Good Shepard, the good sisters of many religious orders. Many of them live in close to poverty. Remember the congressman who was a priest. I can’t remember his name. He lived in an unadorned dormitory room when in Washington. Unfortunately he was a far left liberal. But he practiced what he preached.

This Pope lives in a small apartment and lives frugally. The Catholic Church provides many resources and a lot of money and time and energy to help the poor. You can say the Catholic Church should sell its possessions— and my baptist father used to make that argument to my Catholic mother— but as a Catholic I would never want to see the Catholic Church and it's traditions and places of worship dismantled. We don't worship our Cathedrals and the Vatican, but we created them to praise the Lord Jesus Christ, and then we get back to our charity work. My Aunt, not Catholic, visited the Vatican and felt truly transformed— she didn't change from being a Methodist but felt a great power strengthening her Christianity. As a conservative I am not for high taxes and taking things away from groups or people. Why does that belief not apply to my church as well? Secular groups would love to see the churches great architectural and other structures dismantled. Not going to happen. And I can guarantee you most of the poor helped by the church who are Catholic wouldn't want it.

I would add every Pope has started out a poor Priest. Why is it wrong if we Catholics choose to celebrate the one who has worked up to Pope? He has over a billion members of his faith!