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Speaker 1: There was a priest on the news last night talking

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Speaker 1: about homeless people the cost of buying a house in

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Speaker 1: New Zealand. This priest, who was naturally dressed in all

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Speaker 1: the garb, the robe, the hats, the works, then mentioned

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Speaker 1: the fact that there were Marina berths down at the

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Speaker 1: waterfront bursting at the seams with super yachts. And I thought,

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Speaker 1: what an odd thing to say. I know, the church's

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Speaker 1: role is to help the poor, and they do that,

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Speaker 1: and I've seen them do that and it's fantastic, But

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Speaker 1: to then also blame the wealthy for not helping the poor?

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Speaker 1: Is that helping or is that politics? The Church the

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Speaker 1: state had been clashing of late. In case you've missed it,

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Speaker 1: we all saw those quote faith leaders come out during

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Speaker 1: the Treaty Principle's Bill and give David Seymour a bollocking.

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Speaker 1: What exactly is the endgame here? That's my question. Are they,

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Speaker 1: like the Good Bishop Brian Tummocky keen on getting into

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Speaker 1: Parliament themselves. The Salvation Army does a report every year

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Speaker 1: looking at the wealth of billionaires. There's a lot of

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Speaker 1: finger pointing and tisking about those who've accumulated a lot

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Speaker 1: of wealth. But what about those who've got a lot

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Speaker 1: but also give a lot. For a good example, we

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Speaker 1: need look no further than the Catholic Church itself. It

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Speaker 1: is one of the largest and wealthiest organizations in the world.

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Speaker 1: The Vatican, because of its small population, the eighteenth wealthiest

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Speaker 1: nation per capita. They boast a huge real estate portfolio.

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Speaker 1: Hard to work out exactly what they're worth, but they

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Speaker 1: reckon somewhere between seventy three and two hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: billion dollars, so more than the combined wealth of all

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Speaker 1: the billionaires that this country's ever known. To be honest,

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Speaker 1: none of this bothers me. I believe everybody should believe

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Speaker 1: whatever God they want to believe in, whatever after life

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Speaker 1: they want to believe in. That is religious freedom, tithe

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Speaker 1: to your heart's content, preach till your blue in the face.

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Speaker 1: I respect your right to think and pray as you want.

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Speaker 1: But if you're going to preach for the poor and

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Speaker 1: against the wealthy, perhaps getting your own house in order

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Speaker 1: might be a good place to start, lest you come

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Speaker 1: across a tad hypocritical. For more from early edition with

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Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks. It'd be from

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Speaker 1: five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio