If the Vatican is good, why won't it reveal its wealth?

Question

For the first time in history, the Vatican now publishes a short set of accounts for its operation in Rome and a fraction of its assets. Some of the divisions of the church also publish fragmentary accounts, particularly Health/School services required under law.

Yet across the world in places like the US, Europe, Canada, Aust the Catholic Church continues to refuse to publish a complete worldwide account of all its direct and indirect asset holdings including (but not limited to): property, gold and diamond holdings, shares etc.

If the Vatican, the Catholic Church was truly a force for good, why hide its true wealth? If the Vatican is really a force for good, why does it continue to refuse requests for a worldwide account of all its wealth (as in recent cases of Nazi/Croatian Gold disclosures in San Francisco)?

FYI, to the questioner that asked about my wealth and disclosure: by law in Australia (like most nations) I am required by law to disclose my assets each year in order to be taxed by the government. OK.

However, I understand (and correct me if I am wrong) but in countries such as Italy which pays billions of dollars to support infrastructure, the Vatican refuses to pay taxes, claiming to be an independent sovereign state.

Answer 1

More to the point, why does it have any wealth?

While there is one poor person left living on this planet, the church (ALL churches) should be ashamed of themselves; preaching charity and at the same time accumulating wealth is hypocrisy.

Perhaps Catholic Church Inc. and all the others might like to contemplate what Jesus would say if he arrived back on Earth to witness the grinding poverty of millions and the opulent wealth of many so-called Christian religions.

Answer 2

Tell ya what. YOU divulge every last smitch of YOUR assets to the world.

Give it a rest people. Vilifying the Catholic Church may be a fine sport but it's gotten real old.

More than 2/3 of the Church's "wealth" lies not in money, real estate or investments, not in industries, commercial ventures and businesses, but in the collections of art and antiquities for which the Church has been primary custodian for centuries. There is NO way to put a monetary value on the Sistine ceiling, on the Pieta, on the doors of St. Peter's even, on the baldacchino over the altar. The buildings themselves are art treasures without peer or price.

Also, why do you not demand the same accounting of OTHER faiths, churches, synagogues, temples, etc.? How hypocritical do you get? Let's see how much of its assets the Southern Baptist Convention, for instance, lays out in charities each year, what their operating expenses per member are. Or the Missouri Synod of the Lutherans? Or the American Episcopalian Church? Or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints? Or the Jehovah's Witnesses? What about all those mosques built by and for American Muslims? And let's not forget the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the various branches of Orthodoxy. And hey, here's a new one for all you anti-Semites, let's investigate and call for full disclosure of all the JEWISH synagogues. Why, everybody knows that the Jews own all the banks. Betcha THEY got enough stashed away to make the Vatican look like a pack of paupers.

Well, what are you waiting for? Let's get that creaky old agitprop machine up and running and have another go at persecution.

DISGUSTING! ALL OF YOU!!!

So I return to your original challenge and answer it with one of my own. If YOU consider yourself a good person, then divulge YOUR wealth, however large or small the amount may be. And do it as publicly as you're demanding the Catholic Church do.

Answer 3

and you know it's a fraction of it's assets how?!

the vatican and Rcc in general does provide more charitable outsourcing then most. if only people would really look for the good instead of only trying to find the bad. when you seek to find lies -they will be there.

it was commented - sell their art -- it's not theirs to sell and who on earth would buy it? the PIeta - how can you put a price on this? how would you figure out the amount of people that visit it daily and put a price on that?!

Answer 4

No they don't have to disclose it, does your state disclose it's wealth. I never knew Louisiana had so much money stashed until hurricane Katrina and all the time they were poor mouthing


EDIT,

Right you are, they are a sovereign state and therefore need not disclose the billions of dollars they have, to avoid law suits, they are just poor mouthing.

Answer 5

Friend, The reason they don't want the world to know, it will expose their part in the holacost, & why many Catholic nations is poor, & countries like Africa, many ask why is that country poor, look at the vatican it has all their money, Look at Latin America, the vatican has all their money also.

Answer 6

its terribly naive to think of the Vatican as a good force in the world. have you been there? have you seen Vatican city in all its glorious architecture and ornamentation? these buildings represent an empire not a religious institution! the Vatican have is and will always be a force of corruption, unnecessary interventions and a source of misery. same goes to all religious institutions.

Answer 7

Probably the vatican is trying to keep some level of mystery to it so that people don't try to use their wealth as a sounding board.

Answer 8

All religious teachers are not telling us the Truth. The truth is that we are all God, we are all Jesus, we are all one spirit. Our brain wants us to think that we are seperate people. If a raindrop had a mind it would think it was a seperate entity until it hit the puddle or pond or ocean. Think of Heaven as that ocean. Religeon would be out if we all realized that

Answer 9

Everyone would want a piece of it !

Answer 10

The church is more corrupt than the mob. Don't you know that?