However, the current Pope was (and probably still is) a Jesuit, a member of a religious order. Do Jesuits take vows of poverty? Iirc members of some other orders do.
My guess is that the answer, if there is one, is going to be a religious figure, likely, but not necessarily one who has taken a formal vow of poverty, who has some level of control of vast amounts of assets through the office they hold (e.g. big budget position) and/or through the assets of their followers, but who personally has very little. Perhaps a monk or something.
Yes, the Jesuits actually take 4 vows - the traditional three for religious orders of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and a fourth of specific obedience to the Pope.
Thanks. I guess that last one is not too hard to follow when you yourself are the Pope
So, their three vows are poverty, chastity, obedience, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.
His tools are fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to himself, and white dresses.
So that’s what the Romans have done for us!
Ni!
Until a couple of years ago, it might hae been President Lula of Brazil, who I believe drove an old pickup truck. Maybe the guy in Bolivia (Plurinational State of), too.
I’m going to say Bill and Hillary Clinton, while he was president. According to her they were dead broke.
While he’s started a big ball rolling toward mass action to reclaim privacy, he doesn’t really have any further influence – the journalists who now hold the whistle-blower files control the pace of future revelations, and it’s not at all clear that even this has any power to add or detract from the ripples set in motion.
Two different kinds of “power”. Depending on which kind the OP had in mind, one biggie from last century might have been Mahatma Gandhi.
Well, that would equally be an objection to the nomination of the pope. Large numbers of his professed followers routinely ignore teachings about, e.g., contraception, pre-marital sex, economic justice, etc. The truth it that he tries to persuade people to behave in certain ways, and his position means that they will at least give what he says a hearing, but in the end they make up their own minds about when they will adopt what he says, and when they won’t.
So, if power means the authority to compel obedience, most religious leaders have little or no power.
However the OP explicitly mentions religious leaders as being among the powerful, so clearly the OP doesn’t invoke such a narrow concept of “power”.
Jesuits do take vows of poverty. But a Jesuit who is appointed to be a bishop is released from his vow of poverty (because under canon law the bishop’s role involves, among other things, acting as the owner of diocesan property) and his vow of obedience (because it ain’t right that a diocesan bishop should be subject to the direction of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus). So Pope Francis hasn’t been bound by a formal vow of poverty since he was appointed a bishop (which happened in 1992). He hasn’t been bound by his vows of obedience either (though as a bishop he had a canonical obligation of obedience to the pope).
Although not bound by the vow, it’s customary for Jesuits who are bishops to continue to observe monastic poverty, and by all accounts Pope Francis has done. It’s unlikely that he owns much beyond his personal possessions - clothes, books and so forth - and, while I don’t know how he applied his salary as Arcbishop of Buenos Aires, his current position carries no salary.
Another poster mentioned it, but I’d also go with Obama. The power to wealth ratio there is pretty much off the scale compared to basically anyone else. He’s certainly not even rich by US standards (he’s basically upper middle class), and he’s arguably the most powerful man on the planet, wielding the power of the most powerful country on earth.
before she died, the winner would have been…mother theresa! very poor and very powerful…if she called the white house, the president would take her call…that’s how you decide who’s powerful
Powerful, no. I seriously doubt that if she called any leader of a G8 nation when she was alive, they would drop anything to take the call. At most they might get a note with what she said in the daily briefing.
Poor is also questionable.
How many subdivisions has the pope?
I think having multiple best-selling books and a net worth over $12 million pushes him a little outside of “upper middle class”, don’t you?
According to this site, Kentucky senator Rand Paul is only worth $1.1 million, and yet the GOP are so afraid of what he can do to public opinion that he can pretty much run the party by proxy.