A Pauper Pope: Pontiff Prediction Precision by Progressives

Here is an article from the March 9th Wall Street Journal just days before the March 13th Papal Election.  You would think that Bergoglio himself had written it! or that at least some of the Cardinals read it or things like it.  Most exact!

The Liberals got it right this time!  May they too come to the fullness of the Catholic faith of our beloved Pauper Pope Francis who has succeeded our equally beloved Professor Pope Emeritus Benedict.


Among the Poor 
by Michael Sean Winters

The next pope will find himself living in one of the planet's most lavish palaces, in the trappings of a 17th-century royal court.  He will be a modern celebrity too, with all the expectations conferred by that status.
Still, there are steps he could take to identify himself more closely with the world's poor.  Pope Benedict XVI had a penchant for elaborate, baroque dress.  He did this, as I understand it, because of his commitment to the ideal of beauty in the Church's liturgy.  But a simpler attire can be beautiful too, and it wouldn't make a parent struggling to feed her children wonder why so much money is spent on luxuries.
The new pope will be the Bishop of Rome.  Like many bishops throughout the world, he can make time to go to soup kitchens and serve the poor, visit the infirm in hospitals and go to local prisons, spending time with those whom the rest of the world tends to shun.  Such visits can become a regular part of the new pope's foreign travel schedule.  A pope must visit with the powerful, with civil and ecclesial leaders, to be sure, but there is no reason he cannot regularly visit the world's poor as well.
Identifying with the poor would allow the new pope to give visible evidence of Catholicism's deep-seated suspicions of modern consumer capitalism.  Capitalism values thrift and aggressiveness, its heroes are the protean, self-made men of industry.  It thrives on competition.
But Christians follow Jesus Christ, whose grace is gratuitous, not thrifty, whose life was characterized by contemplation, not aggression.  Jesus was not a self-made man but radically dependent on the Father's will.
Jesus, and the Church that Catholics believe he founded, valued solidarity more than competition.  He characterized his ministry as bringing good news to the poor.  Benedict XVI was non shy about criticizing capitalism in his writings.  We need a pope who will critique it by his actions.
Mr Winters is a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter and writes the blog Distinctly Catholic.