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Is the Catholic Church the richest organization in the world?

JenniferJenniferOld Faithful
This is NOT an attack. My question is- why is the church is amassing all this wealth?


Is the Catholic Church the richest organization in the world?
Submitted by Ralph Waldo on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 12:37
in Daily Paul Liberty Forum

The following are statements either made in speeches by members of the Catholic Church or financial publications giving their assessments of the wealth of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church must be the biggest corporation in the United States. We have a branch office in every neighborhood. Our assets and real estate holdings must exceed those of Standard Oil, A.T.&T., and U.S. Steel combined. And our roster of dues-paying members must be second only to the tax rolls of the United States Government.'

The Catholic church, once all her assets have been put together, is the most formidable stockbroker in the world. The Wall Street Journal said that the Vatican's financial deals in the U.S. alone were so big that very often it sold or bought gold in lots of a million or more dollars at one time.

The Vatican's treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine to amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this is stored in gold ingots with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, while banks in England and Switzerland hold the rest. But this is just a small portion of the wealth of the Vatican, which in the U.S. alone, is greater than that of the five wealthiest giant corporations of the country. When to that is added all the real estate, property, stocks and shares abroad, then the staggering accumulation of the wealth of the Catholic church becomes so formidable as to defy any rational assessment".

The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars.
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CrustyMacCrustyMacOld Faithful
I've seen some actual numbers; and while this is propaganda against the Catholic Church, it isn't inaccurate.

The church is a large organization that requires a lot of money to operate on. To ask why it is "amassing wealth" is the same as asking why Wal-Mart is amassing wealth. It is a basic requirement of an organization that large. I use Wal-Mart on purpose, because I have read that Wal-Mart is the largest land owner in the world, with the Catholic Church coming in at number two.

No evil intentions behind their "amassing of wealth". Just basic necessity to fund such a large organization, one that needs to display the "glory of God" in all it's bedazzling immanence.
JenniferJenniferOld Faithful
quote:
Originally posted by CrustyMac:
I've seen some actual numbers; and while this is propaganda against the Catholic Church, it isn't inaccurate.

The church is a large organization that requires a lot of money to operate on. To ask why it is "amassing wealth" is the same as asking why Wal-Mart is amassing wealth. It is a basic requirement of an organization that large. I use Wal-Mart on purpose, because I have read that Wal-Mart is the largest land owner in the world, with the Catholic Church coming in at number two.

No evil intentions behind their "amassing of wealth". Just basic necessity to fund such a large organization, one that needs to display the "glory of God" in all it's bedazzling immanence.
I can understand Wal-mart, but a religious organization? And I wonder why they have billions in reserve, not being put to use.
JenniferJenniferOld Faithful
quote:
Originally posted by CrustyMac:
Jennifer, stop it. No conspiracy. No evil intent. The Catholic Church has been around a long time.

Billions in reserve sounds like a lot to a single person in Florence AL. But it isn't that much considering the size of the organization.
How do you get to a conspiracy theory? This is not any kind of attack. My question was just why does a religious organization have billions of dollars in reserve. I don't get the conspiracy part of that. And a billion dollars is a lot of money to anyone, ask any billionaire.
CrustyMacCrustyMacOld Faithful
Obviously, what is it?

But just to ask you, why shouldn't it have a substantial reserve that insures it's financial well being?

As to the size of the reserve - this is obviously speculation and listed as "billions" How many? Let's say 10 billion. Church membership in 2007 was 1.147 billion people (from Wikipedia). That comes to a reserve of less than $10 per person.
CrustyMacCrustyMacOld Faithful
Ah, okay. So maintaining the financial well being of the Church is wrong.

Let's just assume that the Church's mission benefits people. They can give everything they have to those people today. Tomorrow they are broke and helping nobody. Or they can assure the success of their ongoing mission, be financially sound, and continue helping people for another 2000 years.

Jennifer, I am currently living day-to-day financially. I long for the day I can put a few bucks in the bank as a reserve against really bad times. How about you?
JenniferJenniferOld Faithful
quote:
Originally posted by CrustyMac:
Ah, okay. So maintaining the financial well being of the Church is wrong.

Let's just assume that the Church's mission benefits people. They can give everything they have to those people today. Tomorrow they are broke and helping nobody. Or they can assure the success of their ongoing mission, be financially sound, and continue helping people for another 2000 years.

Jennifer, I am currently living day-to-day financially. I long for the day I can put a few bucks in the bank as a reserve against really bad times. How about you?
Crusty, I ask a question, no where did I say "wrong", conspiracy, or whatever. Yes, I want to be financially strong but I doubt I'll ever have a million dollars much less billions. I ask, you gave your opinion.
BJ Big JohnsonSmall Talker
quote:
Originally posted by CrustyMac:
Ah, okay. So maintaining the financial well being of the Church is wrong.

Let's just assume that the Church's mission benefits people. They can give everything they have to those people today. Tomorrow they are broke and helping nobody. Or they can assure the success of their ongoing mission, be financially sound, and continue helping people for another 2000 years.

Jennifer, I am currently living day-to-day financially. I long for the day I can put a few bucks in the bank as a reserve against really bad times. How about you?


If republican stop blokin every thing Obama be tryin to do-every body will have some money they can stick in they bank and save for a rainy day.
CrustyMacCrustyMacOld Faithful
So, Jennifer, you got me interested.

Reserves are needed for situations like this one: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/s...atican-finances.html

In 2007, Pope John Paul II ordered financial disclosure by all Church Diocese. You can now find many of these online if you care to see how they use their money. Based on what little I know about church expenses, most goes into maintenance and salaries.

In 2007, the Vatican ran a deficit. Nice to have a few bucks in the bank for such occasions.
_Joy__Joy_Old Faithful
When I was in Honduras, I met a Catholic group visiting one of their sister churches (can't remember correct term, but you get the idea). They said that one of the reasons they were there was to assess the needs of the church there in Honduras...well, in looking around me, I'd say feeding the hungry would be top of the list.

This is totally a guess, but the church may share their wealth with the needy, but do not feel a need to advertise it. There is a verse in the Bible that says that if you help others, toot your own horn to get the praise of men, congratulations; you just received your reward. However, if you help others in secret, with no thought to earthly gain, you will receive your reward from your Father in Heaven. That is SO a paraphrase...please keep that in mind. HA! They could simply be practicing what they preach.

Like I said, I'm guessing.
CrustyMacCrustyMacOld Faithful
quote:
Originally posted by b50m:
Yes, he is. It is not the richest by far and the 'wealth' is not something that can be sold so it's not a money making organization.


That's one of the points that I dispute. The wealth could be sold. In order to maintain it's "value" on the open market, it would have to be sold individually and over a long period of time.

That isn't desirable, though.

The art treasures at the Vatican are shown to the public - at least this is the case when I was there - through paid, self-guided, tours. It wasn't particularly cheap either.

At one particularly stunning example of a Catholic Church in Mexico City, there was no fee for viewing the treasures inside the church, but there were donation boxes in the narthex (sp?), and the guides made it clear that donations were pretty much required of their groups.

Even in St. Florian, I haven't been inside to see the Tiffany windows without putting something in the collection box.
PA prince albertHall of Famer
the Church I go to is a group of People, nowhere is there a building that is called a church, the Building is the place where the Church Assembles, and as far as having a lot of Money on hand, if you have enough to pay your operating expenses for two Months, that is a plenty, all over that should be used to help the People that are in need.

it should never be used for a Dinner or to pay for a Trip for Church Members to go somewhere, there are lots of Churches that are no more than Social Clubs. take away the Entertainment and the Food and see how big the Crowd is.

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