How rich is the Catholic Church?

[Braznor]

.I never seen any reliable figure for the true worth of the Roman Catholic Church. Now while some claim the church to be property rich, cash poor, I find it hard to believe this explanation. Its ridiculous that the money fleeced by the church over the past millennium can just disappear .

So can someone please post some figures we can discuss over here?

 

[maddogchen]

many of their items are priceless. How do you add priceless to your account sheet?

 

[GagHalfrunt]

A lot has gone to out of court settlements, the rest has been carefully hidden to protect it from having to be paid to the church's victims. You'll never be able to get an accurate figure. The church hides their wealth as carefully as they hide their atrocities.

 

[Kelvrick]

Long live the hare club for men.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
A lot has gone to out of court settlements, the rest has been carefully hidden to protect it from having to be paid to the church's victims. You'll never be able to get an accurate figure. The church hides their wealth as carefully as they hide their atrocities.

Woah, lol.

 

[Pantoot]

There is a reason the priests aren't allowed to marry. Their property stays the property of the church...no heirs...

 

[zinfamous]

They're like, God-rich.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Braznor
.I never seen any reliable figure for the true worth of the Roman Catholic Church. Now while some claim the church to be property rich, cash poor, I find it hard to believe this explanation. Its ridiculous that the money fleeced by the church over the past millennium can just disappear .

So can someone please post some figures we can discuss over here?

many popes over the centuries were elected to pope for the purpose of fleecing the church on behalf of their own families. I'm sure there's a dent in that vault, but supposedly there's still a shit-ton of gold-plated everything locked away down there.

 

[BigJ]

Imagine having one of the most priceless treasures in the world. A treasure so valuable to actually put a dollar figure on it would be impossible.

Now imagine having U-Haul after U-Haul filled with crap like that.

If you're talking about liquidity, that I'm not too sure of.

Quick Google search:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=54617

 

[TruePaige]

Very.

 

[Kadarin]

Obligatory Heinlein quote:

The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: BigJ
Imagine having one of the most priceless treasures in the world. A treasure so valuable to actually put a dollar figure on it would be impossible.

Now imagine having U-Haul after U-Haul filled with crap like that.

If you're talking about liquidity, that I'm not too sure of.

Quick Google search:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=54617

If their Real Estate is on their books at cost, that is one huge hidden asset. I would imagine the Catholic Church is worth approximately 10x whatever their Balance Sheet claims.

 

[jupiter57]

I remember reading earlier that the Catholic church was THE wealthiest entity in the world, by far.
Something like 2.5 times the net worth of the next wealthiest entity.

 

[waggy]

and its funny they were trying to get out of paying for and capping child mollestation case's by saying they didnt have the money..

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I imagine St. Peter's Basilica would fetch a pretty penny... But yeah, the church may have lots of priceless stuff, but it's not going to start hocking relics to come up with some liquid assets. "How much can you give me for the shroud of Turin?" Won't happen. In terms of liquid assets, Catholicism has been on the decline for decades now, centuries even; Protestantism took a fair share of Christians and continues drawing in new worshippers, not to mention the non-Christian religions of the world. And in this day and age, where people have more freedom to choose their religion that at any point prior, many are turning to agnosticism or atheism. The Catholic church is not the dominant entity it used to be. Those coffers are far from empty, but they are not making bank like they used to.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

doesn't god just give them more money when they need it?

 

[m1ldslide1]

I've always wondered what all they have shut up in the Vatican. I would imagine that it would be some pretty damn controversial stuff, otherwise it would probably be open to public perusal. Stuff like dozens of additional and contradicting gospels, treasures and relics that were stolen from other religions/civilizations, probably some gnarly stuff pointing directly to mass atrocities committed by the church, etc and so on.

The one thing you can be sure they don't have locked away is any physical evidence of Christianity - if they had it, they would've used it, and they would be running the show across the whole world by now.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Rich enough to pay out all the judgements against it for protecting the many child molesting priests. :|

 

[MotionMan]

They did get $600,000,000 for their swing vote on the Immobiliare Board of Directors.

MotionMan

 

[meltdown75]

eleventy billion.

 

[sygyzy]

The ridiculousness of this topic astounds me. The OP makes it sound like he's asking a legitimate question, but he can't help himself and interjects anti-religious statements.

GagHalfrunt suggests that "a lot" of it has gone to court settlements for victims. That implies a majority. I would bet the monies paid to victims are a drop in the bucket compared to how much money the church has.

JS80, "The Big Tipper," pulls this gem out of his ass - "I would imagine the Catholic Church is worth approximately 10x whatever their Balance Sheet claims." Based on what?!?!?! Why not 12x or 8x?

Then m1ldslide1 tries to contribute with more silliness and passes it off as fact. Are we just posting from our freshman creative writing class now? I don't have a problem with church criticism but what's the point of post after post of theories?

I can play along. Let's talk about IBM. Yeah I bet they have some atrocities they don't want us to know about. Like their involvement with the Germans in WW2. I mean why don't they open up ALL their files and records for the public to peruse. You know, because that's what companies like to do. They like to just leave their doors unlocked to see. And yeah, I bet their director of marketing is a cross-dresser. Yeah, that's the ticket. And man, I bet they actually didn't build Big Blue. I bet Toshiba did but they didn't get any credit for that.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

trillions........how much do you think the property alone their older churches are built on is worth.....then consider the other properties, castles and estates and what not. Then consider all the gold adorned trinkets and other super rare historical items.

Goto the Sistine chapel and just try and put a number together for how much that would cost to build today.

 

[JC86]

I remember a Religious Studies professor once said that the Catholic Church is the single largest, land-owning, non-government entity. So considering how much land they have, i'd say they're filthy rich.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: MotionMan
They did get $600,000,000 for their swing vote on the Immobiliare Board of Directors.

MotionMan

excellent godfather III reference.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
JS80, "The Big Tipper," pulls this gem out of his ass - "I would imagine the Catholic Church is worth approximately 10x whatever their Balance Sheet claims." Based on what?!?!?! Why not 12x or 8x?

Based on conservative estimates of recent transactions (Sears buying Kmart - Kmart's real estate was worth 20x what it was on the balance sheet assuming it's business was worthless) and case studies I remember from college (McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Catholic Church). You're right though, I chose 10x because it's round and easy for you simpletons to understand, which I guess would have been as good as 12x or 8x. I would imagine though it's more like 100x because the real estate they purchased goes back to early 1900s or before.