What is the source of the catholic church's wealth?

Answer 1

Good living Catholics giving their earning over to the church.

Answer 2

The above is sort of historically correct.

The Catholic Church is not a single organization, but thousands of autonomous and semi-autonomous organizations. Most of the reserves of the various organizations come from donations, although there are bake sales, church bazaars and so forth. The Catholic Church is probably less wealthy than you think. It is important to remember that about 1 in 5 people in the world are Catholic. If you look at it on a per capita basis, it is probably quite small. I doubt anyone knows how much the various organizations hold in cash reserves and in assets. There is no central authority in the Catholic Church that would keep track of things like that. No one has the power even to ask.

The Vatican has only recently stabilized its finances. Rome has refused to reduce its spending on the poor, but inflation has been eroding its buying power since the '60's, particularly since the advent of fiat money. Recently, the wealthier communities stepped into guarantee the well being of the poor and to stabilize finances.

The Catholic Church is a meta organization connected by bonds of fraternal love. Rome is mistakenly seen as the "boss," but that is not a very realistic view of Rome. The authority of the pope is profoundly limited and is closest in concept to an appellet court's authority than anything else. The pope does hold certain extra authority over churches within its Patriarchate, but not so profound that they can tell people what to do either. Outside the Patriarchate of Rome the pope's power falls dramatically.

Answer 3

Constantine made Christianity the favored religion of the Roman Empire in by 324 AD. "He built a vast new basilica church on the Vatican hill, where reputedly St Peter had been martyred. Other great churches were built by Constantine, such as the great St John Lateran in Rome or the reconstruction of the great church of Nicomedia which had been destroyed by Diocletian.
Apart from building great monuments to Christianity, Constantine now also became openly hostile toward the pagans. Even pagan sacrifice itself was forbidden. Pagan temples (except those of the previous official Roman state cult) had their treasures confiscated. These treasures were largely given to the Christian churches instead."http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/religion.html

"In AD 380 emperor Theodosius took the final step and made Christianity the official religion of state." http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/religion.html

If memory serves, nobles and princes over the ensuing years contributed land and wealth to the Church. In the middle ages the magnificence of the church or cathedral reflected the power and the affluence of the community.

Communities would band together and build the great gothic cathedrals raising money over years to pay for it.

Other, less honest ways of getting money, was by selling indulgences, and other corrupt practices.

"The Roman Catholic Church was the single, largest unifying structure in medieval Europe...
Every person was required to live by the Church's laws and to pay heavy taxes to support the Church. In return for this, they were shown the way to everlasting life and happiness after lives that were often short and hard.

In addition to collecting taxes, the Church also accepted gifts of all kinds from individuals who wanted special favors or wanted to be certain of a place in heaven. These gifts included land, flocks, crops, and even serfs. This allowed the Church to become very powerful, and it often used this power to influence kings to do as it wanted."

I guess that's the start of the Church's great wealth. Today I believe the wealth of the church is mostly invested in banks, etc. to preserve their wealth. And of course, Catholics still contribute to the Church.

Answer 4

The same as all the other Religions Churches.