roman catholic church's wealth impossible to calculate
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8/13/2019 Roman Catholic Church's Wealth Impossible to Calculate
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news.nationalpost.comhttp://news.nationalpos t.com/2013/03/08/wealth-o f-rom an-catholic-church-impo ss ible-to- calculate/
Roman Catholic Church's wealth impossible to calculate
What do we know about t he church’s f inances?
1 The symbolic value, in euros , of the buildings in Vatican City. The church uses this number to indicate theyare priceless and could never be so ld. They include: the Apostolic Palace, the pope’s of f icial residence; theSist ine Chapel, best known f or murals by Bot ticelli and Michelangelo, who painted the ceiling and thef amous Last Judgment behind the altar; and St. Peter ’s Basilica, the largest church in the world erectedover the supposed burial site of the apost le St. Peter, the f irst bishop of Rome.
716,290 The amount o f Church-owned land, in square kilometres, acros s the globe — an area slightlybigger than Alberta. Properties include Vatican embass ies, churches, cathedrals, monasteries, so meschoo ls and convents.
10 Reported investment (in billions o f dollars) in f oreign companies by the Institute of Religious Works (theVatican bank) in the 1990s. It has holdings in such indust ries as banking, insurance, chemicals, s teel,construct ion and real estate. It o nly invests in companies that operate according to Catholic morals . For example, it will not invest in a pharmaceutical company that produces birth cont rol.
86 In millions of dollars, Peter ’s Pence in 2011. The Vatican’s mos t important so urce of ready cash is madeup of donations f rom parishes acros s the globe. The money is spent on humanitarian projects, includingdisast er relief , medical aid, and help to the poor in developing nations , children and ref ugees.
22.4 In millions of dollars, the approximate value of almost one metric tonne of gold owned by the Holy Seein 2008.
308 In millions of dollars, t he Vatican’s revenue in 2011. It spent $326.4-million, but ended the year with a$27-million surplus.
31 In millions of dollars, the amount seized f rom the Vatican bank by Italian authorities during aninvestigation into money laundering.
2 In billions of dollars, the amount paid out as settlements by the church fo r sex-abuse allegations in theUnited States.
National Post
It is impossible to calculate the wealth o f the Roman Catholic Church. In truth, the church its elf likely couldnot answer that quest ion, even if it wished to .
Its inve stments and spen ding are kept secret. Its real estat e and art have not been properly evaluated,since the church would never sell them.
There is no doubt, however, that between the church’s priceless art , land, gold and investments across theglobe, it is one of the wealthiest inst itutions o n Earth.
Since 313 A.D., when Catholicism became the o f f icial religion o f the Roman Empire, its power has been in
near-constant growth.
The church was able to acquire land, mos t no tably the Papal Stat es surrounding Rome, convert pagantemples and claim relics f or itself . Over 300 years, it became one o f Europe’s largest landowners.
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For the next thousand years, tithes and tributes flowed in from all over Europe. Non-Christians and evenf ellow Christ ians were killed and their property conf iscated. For example, the Fourth Crusade and the sackof Constantinople in the early 13th century brought it gold, money and jewels.
But by the beginning of the 20th century, the church had f aced several hundred years o f turbulence.Protestantism had claimed many of its members. The French Revolution at the end of the 18th centuryoutlawed the church and though Napoleon allowed it to return, his relationship with various popes wasstormy.
Despite this, the church retained great influence in Europe and the Jesuit order focused on missionarywork, spreading Catholicism to other countries.
In the 1870s, t he Papal Stat es were annexed by the new kingdom of Italy and the pope’s territorial inf luencedwindled to the Vatican.
In 1929, the Church received compensation for its lost land in an agreement with the f ascist regime of Benito Mussolini. Under the Lateran Accords, it was paid about $92-million and, in return, recognized hisgovernment.
Investing that money helped f ill the Holy See’s cof f ers, ensuring its f inancial security.
According t o Britain’s Guardian newspaper, the nest egg has grown to at least $655-million.
The Vatican’s portf olio includes pro perty in London, including the building housing Bulgari Jewelers, andapartment buildings in Paris and Switzerland.
VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty ImagesA 50-cent euro coin bearing the image of Pope Benedict XVI.
National Post
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