I'll probably have to go to the box, but I need to say this...

Upon reflection, I think I finally realized what disturbs me so much about the present pontificate...

The poor are being elevated at the expense of everyone and everything else....

This is of course not to say that we shouldn't be helping the poor, we absolutely should, and most certainly this is apart of the spirutal works of mercy of which all of us in our capacity should do.

As Father Blake mentioned on his blog, working with the poor is not as romanticized as we often see it protrayed.

Often times there are various addictions, messes and various other issues to deal with, it is by no means easy. It is a rather big challenge that all of us are called to do in whatever our capacity in life is.

But in case you haven't noticed, the so called "war on poverty" has actually created more people in poverty, interesting is it not? I'm going to make a statement that will probably take all of you a back...but here...

The papal elevation of the poor will have disaterous consequences, resulting in more people in spiritual poverty..Or rather, things will be made worse.

The poor have been elevated in exchange for the lack of decorum, lack of public statements, and the lack of action to the crisis that is infecting the Church.

Again this isn't to say that the poor aren't important, or should not be taken care of, but not at the expense of everything, but not at the expense of everyone or everything else. It's almost as if they're being used for an agenda.

The poor we we will always have with us, and clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, feeding the hungry, are all works of mercy and we should all be doing these things to the degree that we are able.

Our Lord does not say whether a gov't program, or a private entity should take care of the poor (and for good reason), it is up to us to do so. But in trying to do so (the war on poverty), it's almost as if we're taking the Words of Our Lord upside down....trying to eliminate a so called problem.

Strictly speaking we're not just talking about the material poor, we're also talking about those that are spiritually poor as well.

The elevation of the material poor will result in the ignoring of the spirutally poor. There are those of us that are served by beauty (of which I consider myself one of them), one of the reasons the pontificate of Pope Benedict spoke to me personally. Order and beauty are things that I think all humans need (even within the subjectivity of what defines or what can be classified as beautiful)...The poor are not an end in of themselves, and I think that people on the left tend to get this point confused.

We most certainly are to help them, but we are not to let them become a form of idolatry where we ignore everything else. Everything makes sense in the proper order, God first, evreyone else second, you last.

Justice requires that we do everything well and to the best of our ability....We worship God the best that we can. (By following the rubrics, paying attention, giving to God rightly what is due to Him, beautiful vestments, and all of the Church so called bling is not for the glorificatrion of ourselves or the priests/deacons/religious wearing them, but rather so that the person disappears and that Christ is made present.

Perhaps I'm just wierd, but I'm a bit put off by this elevation of people at the expense of everything else. Or maybe it's just my extremely introverted side coming out. I just think that doing these things on a more low key level would be appropriate....that is to say there's a point that one can emphasize anything to the point of ad nausem.

Does everyone remember when Pope Benedict XVI came to visit the US? Does anyone remember the impromptu visiting with the sex abuse victims in DC? Of course not, it happened unannounced, and was kept completely low key.

In otherwords, to be humble one should first recognize that God gives the gift, and then disappear. In otherwords, proclaiming one's humility does the opposite of what one intends. There is no need to proclaim such a thing. While I understand Pope Francis is not in control of how he is protrayed, he is in control of what he says...and to do nothing to curtail this just mind boggles me.

May Our Lord have mercy on us

Pax Vobis