“Pope Ramps Up Charity Office to Be With Poor.” That was a headline in the November 29^{th<\/sup> St. Louis<\/em> Post -Dispatch<\/i>.\u00a0Pope Francis is making headlines like this almost every week now.\u00a0What a concept.\u00a0He wants church members to use the instruction book written by people who knew or at least heard about a man named Jesus centuries ago.\u00a0They call him the Christ and people who follow his vision Christians.\u00a0From what I\u2019ve read about this man they admire so much, he chose to help people in need rather than pursue an occupation that would have provided him with a comfortable lifestyle.\u00a0He might even have been able to afford all the hallmarks of status like owning a sports team or building a chain of stores using tax credits and slave labor.<\/p>\n}

But he chose to do what Pope Francis is now telling his man at the Vatican who is in charge of charitable works.\u00a0Go out and find the poor.\u00a0The archbishop in charge of doing good for people is quoted in the PD article as saying:\u00a0 \u201cThe Holy Father told me at the beginning: \u2018You can sell your desk.\u00a0You won\u2019t need it.\u00a0You need to get out of the Vatican.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait for people to come ringing.\u00a0 You need to go out and look for the poor.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Which made me think of some incredibly brave volunteers who venture into the streets and alleys of downtown St. Louis when it\u2019s cold enough to freeze to death.\u00a0A few years ago, a social worker organized these Winter Outreach volunteers when one of her clients froze to death in a bus stop shelter.\u00a0I happen to know one of the volunteers and have been collecting blankets and other items for about four years, or, as they used to say in North Dakota before global warming,\u00a0 \u201cfour winters.\u201d\u00a0 These are the true Christians although I\u2019ve never asked them if they even go to church.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t really matter. They are \u201creligious\u201d in the best sense of the word.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0saw on the news the other night that the Red Cross was helping a family who lost their home in a fire.\u00a0That got me to wondering who helps people who lost their homes to corporate greed and bank fraud?\u00a0 Who helps those people who lost their jobs because of the Great Recession?\u00a0 It\u2019s nice that a family who lost a home to fire gets help, and the Red Cross is a wonderful organization.\u00a0Don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0I\u2019m glad they help people who need it.\u00a0But there are hundreds of families without homes in St. Louis, and they survive by finding food at churches and sleeping behind dumpsters in alleys.\u00a0 The city authorities don\u2019t want them spoiling the fun of visitors to downtown going to ball games or concerts.\u00a0 So they keep them out of sight.\u00a0 Keep moving them around.\u00a0They close a park here and a park there.\u00a0They make it illegal to feed folks outdoors with no place to live.\u00a0But it\u2019s okay to feed the pigeons.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis made quite a stir last week when he claimed that \u201cunfettered capitalism\u201d kills not only our bodies but our souls.\u00a0Wow.\u00a0That\u2019s one brave Pope.\u00a0I wonder if the cardinals who elected him are having second thoughts?\u00a0\u00a0 No one else at that level of authority dares to criticize the \u201cfree market.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had never thought about \u201cThou shalt not kill\u201d quite that way before, but he\u2019s right.\u00a0 There are sins of commission and sins of omission.\u00a0\u00a0 Shooting someone is an obvious crime.\u00a0 But what about when we let people freeze to death?\u00a0 What about the children living in cars or abandoned buildings?\u00a0 What kind of\u00a0 life will they have?\u00a0 What have we killed in their little hearts and minds?<\/p>\n

Another story on the local news last week was about a middle aged man who had been brutally beaten by his mother when he was too small to defend himself.\u00a0 He found a \u201cfamily\u201d in a gang and did some terrible things to other human beings.\u00a0 After doing prison time, he now lives with damage to his body from gunshot wounds and years of drug abuse.\u00a0 That wouldn\u2019t be much of a story for television, but he now spends his time urging young kids not to follow his path.\u00a0 And here\u2019s the kicker.\u00a0 His story was going to air the next night right after \u201cSurvivor.\u201d\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 Survivor?\u00a0\u00a0Am I the only one who sees the irony here?<\/p>\n

When the weather forecasters tell us to bundle up because of freezing temperatures, I wonder what the people living outdoors do to \u201cbundle up.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m thankful that there are so many organizations collecting coats, food and other necessities this holiday season.\u00a0 It really helps a lot.\u00a0\u00a0But I wonder why we separate ourselves from those in need?\u00a0The vast majority of us are glad to share our bounty as long as we don\u2019t have to actually mingle with the poor.\u00a0 This is what makes Pope Francis so newsworthy.\u00a0 He himself shared meals with the homeless when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.\u00a0\u00a0He sought out those who needed comforting.<\/p>\n

John Lennon encouraged us to \u201cImagine.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s not easy for an old cynic like myself.\u00a0But I\u2019m going to imagine bishops and other leaders of faith communities going out on a freezing cold night with the St. Louis Homeless Winter Outreach volunteers.\u00a0Their Facebook\u00a0 page tells when they will be heading out and where to meet.\u00a0If you have a van, that would be nice. I wonder how many church vans sit idle on cold nights?\u00a0I wonder how long before we decide as a society that every human being deserves food and shelter without having to beg for it.\u00a0We are caught in a trap of our own making.\u00a0We run each other down to get the lowest price on a flat screen television and call that \u201choliday shopping.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s going to take someone with a lot of clout to turn our attention back to what\u2019s really important.\u00a0 That might just be the new Pope.\u00a0 Imagine that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Pope Ramps Up Charity Office to Be With Poor.” That was a headline in the November 29th St. Louis Post -Dispatch.\u00a0Pope Francis is making<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":628,"featured_media":26802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[767,294,96],"tags":[2135,2506,1917,2489],"yoast_head":"\n