Pope Francis trashes the ‘prosperity gospel’: Pompous Christians are ugly pagans

[Act_of_Reparation]

38. And I think not.

Bishop Franz Peter Tebartz-van Elst was not suspended because of his opulent lifestyle. If that were the case, the issue very well could have been resolved when the Vatican first investigated him this September. He was not suspended until he was shown, in court, to have repeatedly lied about allocations of church funds, and was brought up on perjury. Van Elst had been doing shit like this for years and had long incurred the ire of Limburg's parishioners; it wasn't until he became a media sensation--and, for that matter, a criminal--and a threat to the church's public image that the Vatican actually took action to correct it.

But this is only half of the problem. As I stated, the other issue I take with Francis' hollow speech is its inane finger-pointing at a people his own predecessors eradicated and repeatedly slandered for centuries. Hucksterism is not a Pagan problem, and hasn't been since the Pagans were so callously swept from the table fifteen hundred years ago. It is, however, a problem that's been endemic to Catholicism for the whole of its existence, and his refusal to accept any blame on behalf the institution is as deluded as is repugnant.