Poverty Isn’t a Path to Heaven, by John Mac Ghlionn

I was raised Catholic—the kind of Catholic who knew the smell of incense before the sound of morning cartoons. My father was (and still is) a farmer, my mother a care nurse tending to the elderly in their final days. We weren’t poor, but we were acquainted with struggle. So when Pope Leo recently declared that “love for the poor—whatever the form their poverty may take—is the evangelical hallmark of a Church faithful to the heart of God,” I felt something between irritation and déjà vu. It’s not that I disagree with loving the poor. It’s that many Catholics seem to have mistaken poverty for holiness itself.

It’s an old Catholic habit, this romanticizing of suffering. Somewhere between St. Francis stripping naked in the square and the endless talk of “blessed are the meek,” the Church began confusing destitution with decency, as if the less you own, the more your soul shines. It’s a comforting fantasy, especially for those sitting in marble halls. But equating poverty with purity is as false as equating wealth with wickedness. The poor can be cruel, the rich can be kind, and goodness cannot be measured by one’s bank balance or battered boots. …

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