It would be nice if they gave up some of their wealth to help out the poor. After all, that is one of Christianity's major tenants (which few seem to follow, and I've always had a big issue with that).
I think Esmoreit is on the right track in concerns to bringing people out of poverty: You can't just do it with bringing aid. Christian organizations & missionary efforts have understood this in East Asia where they established Christian schools to help train & educate the poor while spreading the gospel and providing aid to otherwise hostile nations.
At any rate, I don't think one could accuse the Catholic power structure to be one that gives freely to charity. If they really wanted to stamp out poverty, I think they probably could do a lot of things with their wealth. I know what my denomination has done with a minute fraction of the people & wealth.
Also, The_Vagabond, about your argument about Obama being considered sub-human in the 1800s: Do you think that would have been because of people's prejudice, or the actual religion? People tend to use anything they can find to justify bad behavior. I don't remember the Bible ever stating that you had to marry a person of the same color, or they were going to be sub-human. For in the same breath you could deride religion as causing some form of bigotry, you could easily as point to the most prominent abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, John Whittier, or Harriet Beecher Stowe as all being convicted Christians.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
