Thomas Reese on the DC funding flap

There may be a fair comparison to be made here - I am recalling the story from memory (I tried to find a reference online but was not able to discover any information; still, I was living in New York at the time, and this was common knowledge.)

When Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity were welcomed to the Archdiocese of New York and New York City in the 1980's, the city gave them two buildings in the Bronx for the homeless and sick. But the buildings needed renovation and the sisters were ok with that to a certain point (I think the city was the major funding agency). But the city insisted on elevators, that the buildings be brought up to code. The sisters argued and reasoned against elevators (from their perspective) but the city insisted. The sisters returned the buildings to the city because their understanding of helping the poorest of the poor did not include the luxury of elevators. When asked how the sisters would get sick people up and down the stairs, the sisters replied that they would carry them.

For the sake of elevators, the poorest of the poor in the Bronx were deprived (at that time) of a roof over their heads, a warm place, a home with sisters who would love them and serve their basic needs and beyond - and maybe save their lives.

Is what's happening in DC not the same thing? The DC archdiocese is not affirming gay marriage but serving the needs of God's people, one person at a time, unconditionally.

I read a quote from the Italian author Ignazio Silone recently that resonates here and evokes a certain reflection about our humanity (for citizens and government officials) and for Catholic Christians, our ecclesiology: "... in certain times and places, the union of the poor assumes an escatalogical force."

At the end of the world, what will Christ ask us? What do the poor ask of us now?