I doubt the Pope thinks that working with the poor is necessarily a matter of improving them economically but rather that he thinks they have not been corrupted by wealth.

IMHO, if the Church needs that people be poor or uneducated in order to evangelize, then it's not the true Church.

How is this pope's fixation on the poor (nearly every time he opens his mouth) any different than what he laments as the Catholic Church's generalized fixation on homosexuality, abortion and contraception?

With the latter, active participation is required by those involved either directly (by procuring an abortion or engaging in homo sex etc) or less directly – but just as culpable-- by the facilitation of abortion or homo sex marriage through political processes.

These evils can and ought to be directly challenged. But poverty is different and, in itself, is not sinful (exceptions duly noted).

However, what are the Pope's economic plans to eliminate poverty around the world?

What systems will he marshal that will allow the most destitute countries of sub-Saharan Africa to eliminate the poverty of its people? Does he plan on demanding more prosperous countries subsidize the world's poor? Does he plan on a worldwide redistribution of wealth in the manner of Barack (the antiChrist) Hussein Obama?

Furthermore, what qualifications and experience does this or any other pope have to successfully implement such a plan even if it could be outlined?

This daily lamentation about the poor, the poor, the poor, the poor accomplishes nothing.

What do you, Your Holiness, as the visible head of over 1.2 billion Catholics, plan to do to eliminate poverty?

Any plan of yours must come under careful scrutiny and questions could legitimately be raised by skeptics and even supporters that if the Catholic Church has clearly been unable to police its own clergy-- to free its priesthood of perverts and heterodoxy --then how in the world could the Catholic Church even begin to address such a major problem as world poverty?

I'm not pope but it seems reasonable to me that you would first attempt to get your own house in proper order before lecturing others on world poverty.

So, instead of these vague lamentations about the poor this and the poor that, why not focus on a plan to repair an ailing Church? Why not plan on appointing sound holy clergy in positions of authority who will once again make the Catholic Church a true vehicle of authority and moral uprightness that it once enjoyed throughout the world.

I submit that this is your charge, Your Holiness not world poverty.

\I had a conversation with a very good bishop the other day about the pope. What follows is a combination of what he told me, what has already been made public, and what I have concluded.

1. This papacy will be about S America and Africa. From Francis' previous remarks, I assume that S America refers to the poor of S America.

2. His previous remarks would indicate that he thinks the West is now composed of non believers, Catholics who have adopted liberal ideology (abortion, homosexuality, contraception, etc) and Catholics with an ideology that is moralistic and rigid (a blast from the past—anyone in an American seminary in the 25 years after VatII heard the rigid mantra). I wonder whether the pope has not distinguished between ideology that contradicts Doctrine and that which doesn't.

3. Spoke with a priest of 30 years about #2. He said it is a great temptation for any pastor to give up on parishioners. Even a glimmer of the faith make any effort worthwhile.

4 . The pope is a Jesuit, and every morning Jesuits at morning prayer try to discern God's will for what they will do that day. That will be the prime motive for his actions, not advisers.

5. Like almost all Jesuits, the pope has little sense of sanctification though the liturgy.