What planet are you on? Evangelical missionaries do it constantly
The thread begins, if you are not aware, with the old complaints about the wealth of the Vatican. My comeback was that Protestant ministers, at least of major churches, do not lives of apostolic poverty. Then we got the usual objection to the Byzantine vestments worn by the pope and I see ridicule of them as “feminine.” —as opposed to the (Many?) “power suits” worn by some Protestant pastor. Yes, I know about Protestant missions, but my example par excellence is St. Francis of Assisi, whose story I assume that many might know, but I guess not.
Francis —his real name was Giovanni, so the name might be rendered to day as
“Frenchie” since his mother was French—wathe son of a well-to-do merchant. He went to war as something like a knight or at least man-at-arms—but his experiences horrified him and so he had a religious conversion. So he renounced the world and its possessions, symbolized by stripping himself naked of his father’s possessions and clad in monks garments went out to live a life of total poverty. He was one of those people who truly can be described as charismatic. He attracted followers not by
preaching so much as by doing thinkings such as restoring a local church that had fallen into repair. He had had a vision in which the lord asked him to build up his church. So he started small, but ended big, earning a reputation for sanctity. A cheerful saint, like a modern Italian saint, Padre Pio. But he had been like the young man who encountered Our Lord and asked what he must do to be perfect. Sell all you have, five to the poor, and follow me. Which is what Francis did. He even accompanied the Third Crusade and gained audience with Saladin, to which he preached Christ. Now the pope during his time was Innocent III, one of the “great” medieval popes. Francis applied to have his rule accepted by the Church, and some churchman objected but Innocent had a dream in which he saw the walls of the Vatican crumble but then being held up by the figure of Francis. So he gave Francis his wish. His was a new kind of order. his “Friars” wandered the country side living on alms and doing the preaching of which regular priests were often incapable. They lived on the same level as the common people, and depended on those who took them in. They had at that time no fixed “estates” like monks. And during his like, Francis held to an absolute rule of poverty. His ministry was modeled after those of Our Lord and his disciples.
So when people demand that the Vatican sell off all its treasures and give them to the poor, I can see where they are coming from. But when I look at the material wealth of certain “mega-churches, I only ask. when will you do the same. But of course, there are some very good reasons for churches to accumulate wealth. Still, from the beginning, it has been hard for a balance to be struck.