"If he was to sell his collection of fancy watches, and all the wealth the church possesses, it wouldn't make much difference. Owning a few nice watches isn't the worst thing a man might do."
Maybe - but it would show a degree of humility which is utterly absent from the Catholic church.
If the Pope lived in modest town house with no posessions, he would be more in keeping with the teachings of Jesus than his current Herod-esque Roman splendour, which is echoed throughout the Catholic world.
I recall visiting my mother-in-law's cottage in County Wicklow. On the death of her mother, her father was obliged to give his seven children up to the convent to be raised, as he could not afford to feed and cloathe them.
Compare that to the four-bedroom presbytery, the largest house in the town by far, and there is one more example of the simple immorality of the way priests did, and do live among the poor of their parishes.
r