How much is the Catholic Church worth ...?

Question

if a single diocese in the U.S. (Boston) is worth in excess of a half billion dollars?

http://www.cloakanddagger.de/media/where_the_vatican_wealth_is_stor.htm

Answer 1

I am an economist and the problem isn't quite as easy as adding up the value or adding it up and dividing by the people.

Let me provide an example. The Walton Family, the founders of Wal-Mart, are worth about 140 billion dollars if their shares could be sold at today's market price.

But there is a hitch. No one on Earth has close to $140 billion. Even Bill Gates, who is worth around $50 billion does not have it in cash and couldn't get it in cash. Who could the Walton family sell to? They don't know either.

The idea of market liquidity is that markets are actually quite illiquid. In order to sell just 1000 shares of Walmart, you have to drop the price 3%. To sell 5 billion dollars worth of shares you would probably require a 40% discount. What for 140 billion?

Even the United States government would have difficulty raising the money. It would be a very large appropriation and could at that level be a budget buster.

If the Catholic Church attempted to sell its assets it would likely collapse the world economy. Even a fractional attempt would trash everyone in America's 401(k). Pension costs would skyrocket. And just who would buy some things like the tomb of St. Peter? Would the Italian government by St. Peter's Basilica? What about the tomb of the apostle Paul? Would the American government buy the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception? Further, such a valuation shift would be meaningless if Catholics did the buying so for it to matter, non-Catholics would have to be the purchasers. Otherwise it is like when the United States government pays Social Security, it redistributes money but it doesn't alter national income. It is an economic non-event, except from a redistribution perspective. Why would you take from the public and give to an institution?

Valuation is a very difficult technical topic and so when you publish values such as for a diocese or the top 50 people in the world, the valuation works only as long as they don't try and realize the value. In other words, the Diocese of Boston is worth half a billion dollars only so long as they do not actually try and get the money. It would probably fall dramatically if they tried to sell.

Answer 2

The catholic church made its first profit in 20 years last year and it was around 1million dollars. As for the wealth related to property and historical paintings etc well its an old organisation its been around since christ made peter the first pope. What is it supposed to do, but its not worth trillions. A lot of the items that are classed as priceless are in vatican museums. We dont class musems as being worth billions because they have items on display. And by the way, the popes apartment is very humble, whole thing is about the same size as my master suite.

Answer 3

Jesus was poor, the catholic church is rich...they would not recognize him if he showed up at the Vatican and he would not recognize him. "Go and sell everything and give to the poor". The catholic church is nothing new, it is simply the reincarnation of the pharisee's and teachers of the law. Jesus did not come to start a religion, he came to start a relationship with his father, Constantine and the papal roman empire usurped the message. The devil is no stranger to religion, just look at the history of the catholic religion.

Answer 4

Eleventy Billion Dollars

Answer 5

The Catholic Church's treasure is in the Heart of Her Bridegroom, Christ Jesus and is without limit.

Answer 6

Whatever the number is, don't forget to divide it by 1.1 billion, which is the number of Catholics in the world.

Answer 7

i don't know really most of there worth is in the art they have like the paintings ans statues really and those are priceless but other than that from what i hear they are pretty close to bankrupt and closing allot of the smaller parishes to cope

Answer 8

Like Carl Sagan said, "billions and billions".

Answer 9

They're the largest crime cartel on the planet. That requires plenty of overhead.

Answer 10

Many billions and they continue to plead poverty.