Uhmm…people give the Catholic Church hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The church is richer than some countries. I mean, I understand what he was trying to get at, but he might not be the best person to point that out.
If only Jesus would have been as explicit about his feelings on religious profiteering as he was about his attitude towards abortion, gays, and gun rights.
Last year the Catholic Church reportedly generated €1.23B ($1.45B) in income. Which is more than the GDP of 10-13 poorest countries in the world, depending on which source you use.
Donations accounted for €237M ($279M) and are the Church’s largest source of income.
It also had a budget deficit lately, until last year. Overall it’s pretty rich, but not nearly as rich as a lot of companies are and as some people would think.
It should also be noted that Pope Leo has been pope for less than a year, which isn’t exactly a whole lot of time to completely reform the Church and rid it of corruption. Assuming that’s at all possible, since the Catholic Church has been corrupt pretty much since the moment it was founded. I’m not saying he will ever do that or that he even wants to. However, so far he’s been a lot better than last few popes, so let’s give him some time.
It’s built up over hundreds and hundreds of years, now the church doesn’t have the spending power it once had and it is drowning in debt. I wish they won’t ever sell their real estate or I think that private billionaires will turn them into fucking amusement parks
As someone who’s done pro-bono and charity work for several religious organizations … the Catholics, Muslim and Jewish dioceses or denominations were always by the books. The Christian-based ones though? Every single one was shady, pulled in as much money for their family as possible and a few would even pull me to the side to ask about fudging numbers with their software.
The Christian and Baptist churches were mostly criminal, if not just in a moral stance, they were outright criminal. The precedent at least had checks and balances while the latter … everyone is in on it.
They learned from the best! The Catholics are no longer so obviously gold-crazy as they once were (for centuries!), they have so much wealth it is hardly a concern for them at this point, untold billions, 170 million acres of land, and so much more than we will ever know.
Baptists, Assembly of God, et al? They have a lot of catching up to do, so they are still obsessed with fleecing everyone for every dime that they can.
Sadly, they are all tax free in many places, so the poor are still being robbed to pay for their “faiths”
A lot of this is just due to the Reformation I imagine. If you want to become a corrupt greedy preacher, why do so in a church that requires their priests to take a vow of poverty? Pre-Reformation, those who wanted to grift joined the Church and found various excuses to get around vows of poverty. But in many Protestant churches, there is no vow of poverty to have to work around.
Uhmm…people give the Catholic Church hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The church is richer than some countries. I mean, I understand what he was trying to get at, but he might not be the best person to point that out.
you use the platform you have
If only Jesus would have been as explicit about his feelings on religious profiteering as he was about his attitude towards abortion, gays, and gun rights.
Underrated comment.
It had been like 20 minutes before you replied
“Slaves? Rape? Don’t worry about it, not worth mentioning. So… do you have a foreskin?” ~Jesus
Legitimately not sure you’re joking, so I’m just going to drop this in case you aren’t: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleansing_of_the_Temple
Last year the Catholic Church reportedly generated €1.23B ($1.45B) in income. Which is more than the GDP of 10-13 poorest countries in the world, depending on which source you use.
Donations accounted for €237M ($279M) and are the Church’s largest source of income.
It also had a budget deficit lately, until last year. Overall it’s pretty rich, but not nearly as rich as a lot of companies are and as some people would think.
It should also be noted that Pope Leo has been pope for less than a year, which isn’t exactly a whole lot of time to completely reform the Church and rid it of corruption. Assuming that’s at all possible, since the Catholic Church has been corrupt pretty much since the moment it was founded. I’m not saying he will ever do that or that he even wants to. However, so far he’s been a lot better than last few popes, so let’s give him some time.
Sources:
It’s built up over hundreds and hundreds of years, now the church doesn’t have the spending power it once had and it is drowning in debt. I wish they won’t ever sell their real estate or I think that private billionaires will turn them into fucking amusement parks
ngl a vatican water park would be sick af. Holy water lazy river, yes please.
a baptism dunk tank would be fun
They do more for humanity through charity work than individual billionaires though.
As someone who’s done pro-bono and charity work for several religious organizations … the Catholics, Muslim and Jewish dioceses or denominations were always by the books. The Christian-based ones though? Every single one was shady, pulled in as much money for their family as possible and a few would even pull me to the side to ask about fudging numbers with their software.
The Christian and Baptist churches were mostly criminal, if not just in a moral stance, they were outright criminal. The precedent at least had checks and balances while the latter … everyone is in on it.
They learned from the best! The Catholics are no longer so obviously gold-crazy as they once were (for centuries!), they have so much wealth it is hardly a concern for them at this point, untold billions, 170 million acres of land, and so much more than we will ever know.
Baptists, Assembly of God, et al? They have a lot of catching up to do, so they are still obsessed with fleecing everyone for every dime that they can.
Sadly, they are all tax free in many places, so the poor are still being robbed to pay for their “faiths”
A lot of this is just due to the Reformation I imagine. If you want to become a corrupt greedy preacher, why do so in a church that requires their priests to take a vow of poverty? Pre-Reformation, those who wanted to grift joined the Church and found various excuses to get around vows of poverty. But in many Protestant churches, there is no vow of poverty to have to work around.
There is no amount of charity they could do to make up for all the harm they’ve caused raping and murdering children for hundreds of years.
I hear you. But right now, at this point in time, the Catholic church ranks higher than billionaires for me.