"Those among the rich who are not, in the rigorous sense, damned, can understand poverty, because they are poor themselves, after a fashion; they cannot understand destitution. 

Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, they will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them. 

They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."

Léon Bloy

Last week a number of people asked what I thought about a certain wealthy New Yorker's comments on Pope Francis and his apparent 'lack of love for the rich.'  I had to look this quote up by Bloy in order to provide a suitable answer.  

While the short term technical may look good, the underlying economic fundamentals are disastrous.

But the real economy can keep doing what it is doing and be blithely ignored, while appearances matter more than the reality of the suffering that they will cause.

And for what? What?