Pope Francis warns of church hypocrisy over poverty

[Ichingcarpenter]

Pope Francis has warned the Roman Catholic church against hypocrisy on the issue of poverty, saying it was impossible to speak about the poor and the homeless and yet lead the “life of a pharaoh”.

The comments were made in an interview with Straatnieuws, a Dutch newspaper published by homeless people. The Vatican has been forced on the defensive after the publication of two books exposing greed and financial mismanagement at the heart of the church. The remarks appear to be a not-so-subtle jibe by Francis directed at his cardinals.

“The church must speak with the truth and also with testimony, the testimony of the poor. If a believer speaks about poverty or about the homeless, and leads the life of a pharaoh, this can’t be done,”

he told the newspaper.


Francis was ready to take on the management of Vatican real estate, including apartments that have allegedly been undervalued by the agency that manages the properties.

“It will change,” an unnamed source told Tornielli, signalling what could prove to be a messy new fight within the Vatican.

In his interview with the Dutch newspaper, Francis said in response to a question about the church’s approach to poverty that Jesus had come into the world “homeless and poor”, and that the church believed every person had the right to three things: work, a home and land.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/06/pope-francis-warns-poverty-hypocrisy-catholic-church