I think the push-back comes from the realization that taking the "poor Church for the poor" seriously means surrendering personal power. It also means accepting our own individual responsibility for sustaining unjust systems that keep the poor down.

It's easy to be charitable from a distance. It lets us pat ourselves on the back and feel heroic. But actually getting to know the poor as people, learning from them and being converted by them, is very hard. It's much easier to seek refuge in the familiar things we've always known, like church structures, clericalism, triumphalism, etc.

One example of how little we understand the mindset of Pope Francis is how we interpret his appointments of so many new cardinals from the developing world. With our western mindset, we see it as political, but I don't believe that for him it's about liberalism or conservatism at all. I believe it's about getting back to our roots as a church that lives on the front lines with those who struggle.