Replies

But I will agree to let the clergy there to make a bondfire of them said garments if all the preachers at the First Baptist Church agree to imitate St. Francis and strip naked in front of their congregation, and walk out naked onto the streets and join the homeless sleeping—voluntarily under I-45. and depend on panhandlng for their daily bread. Or to put the matter another way, imitate Our Lord who pretty much did the same thing.

So Jesus was a panhandler? A beggar?

I can't recall any verses in the Bible where Jesus stood on the corner begging. He relieved a lot of beggars of their livelihoods by healing them and making them productive members of society, but I don't recall Jesus standing on the street corner with his hand out begging for assistance.

Our Lord was an itinerant preacher who spent years moving about the country, depending materially on the support of his hearers and followers. You are offended by the term panhandler, but you will note that when he sent the disciples away, he commanded them to depend on the generosity of others. St, Francis did much the same thing, and so did many itinerant Methodist preachers. Mother Theresa when she left the security of her convent likewise became entirely dependent on such generosity.

Those who dislike the elaborate cermonies at the Vatican pretend to a smugness that is not becoming. But the pastor of a large church like the First Baptist Church in Dallas assumes an office that outs great wealth and power at his disposal and I doubt Dr. Criswell or any of his successors has ever lacked any other creature comforts available to the pope, except personal residence in ancient palaces. A future pope was for a time a follower of St. Francis, and he sadly concluded that --like it or not-- the rule of St. Francis could not be applied to the whole world evenif the true Christian must strive for the same simplicity that mark Francis and which drew men to him as a magnet draws ironfilings.

As for the president pope, he has something in mind when he resorts to the use of vestments not used by the pope since the time of John XXIII. One can make an idol of poverty--as many radical politicians do. To pretend to a poverty of spirit that one does not have. Many priests of my church--and yours-- pretend to serve the poor when thy really want power over them. the pope is trying now to strip many such men of the power they have acquire din the Church, and believe it or not, such men would turn the Vatican into no more than a museum and pretend to devote themselves to the poor when they really have something else in mind.