Thanks for you insight's Andrew. It seems that our current society based on economic gains and mass consumerism does not value the dignity of the individual. If you are poor you have no 'worth' as a market. I actually heard a physician (yes a trained MD) who is now a CEO of a drug company refer to Type 2 diabetics as the largest growing 'market' in the USA. Of course these people had wealth, so they were still interesting to him. It is God that values even a single, poor, human being. The dignity of the person is paramount to the Catholic and Franciscan view of the world. A person living in extreme poverty has had all his opportunity, choice, and dignity crushed. In the Gospel we see example after example of Jesus reaching out to the marginalized, the poor, the sick, the ritualistically unclean. The Temple had become a means of generating wealth for the Sadducees. Only those wealthy enough to afford money conversion and to pay for sacrifice were admitted. Wealth was used as a means to control access even to God! This is why Pope Benedict stated that extreme poverty is something that God wants crushed. Pat
