Faith...

I don't talk about my Religion a lot, but I think that is because I find Religion to be a somewhat personal topic. However this evening I was reading a magazine that was lying around the house and they had an article, a brief one, on Pope Benedict XVI that really just pissed me off.

I am Catholic, born and raised on Long Island. I spent more then several years serving as an altar boy and regardless of all these claims of sexual abuse by Priests, I personally never saw it or heard of it happening. But that is not the issue I am writing about this evening it is the new Pope's affinity for expensive clothing and accoutrements.

I am curious as to what happened to the vows of poverty a Priest must accept when ordined? I know I have never seen a local Priest, heck not even a Bishop or a Cardinal wearing the expensive clothes Pope Benedict XVI has been sporting. Not even the Priest I knew who came from a quite wealthy family, he was as humble if not perhaps more so then the rest that lived in the Rectory.

The Pope's love for high fashion from those butt ugly pair of red Prada shoes and expensive sunglasses to the custom Gucci bags the Pope resembles more of a fashion icon then the head of the Catholic church. He even dismissed the long standing Vatican Tailor (since 1792) instead bringing his own designer with him.

Does Pope get a special dispensation from that specfic vow? I would expect that the Pope of our church should be setting the example for all our Priests and Nuns, living the most humble way possible for all the world to see. That he would instead of spending church money on lavish wardrobes perhaps allow that money to go to much more worthy causes. Does he perhaps believe that God wishes for him to dress in this manner? That somehow his position as the Pope requires him to have special favor and ignore those vows he took with his brother on June 29, 1951.

I believe in my religion, strongly. Enough that when I was getting married it was important to me to find a fellow Catholic. Someone who would share my views on Religion and raise our children with those views. We send our kids to Catholic school, even though we do not have a lot of money we find ways to make sure they can go. And while I am tightening the belts here at home, trying to be the best Catholic that I can, raising my children to be the best they can, sacrificing for the good of our faith, our Pope struts down the punti of the Vatican wearing my monthly house payment on his feet.

I just don't get it.