Now please, don't get me wrong. I know the RC church does a lot for the poor. But if the Pope is going to go down this road, he'd better make some changes in how the RC manages it's own money first.
“They buy artworks and other useless paraphenalia ...”
Can you name some of the artworks they are currently buying? Or do you mean they bought artworks 500 years ago and you’re still nursing that grudge?
People like you remind me of a Calvinist firend of mine. His father’s congregation met in (literally) a tin roof shack and they were so proud of its lack of ronamentation and poverty. His family lived in a beautiful house and they had two all-leather chairs in their living room which he admitted cost 1,000 pounds EACH. That was in 1987.
So they didn’t “waste” a penny on God’s run-down old house but they sure spent a pretty penny on their own.