Christianity?The catholic church.?

Question

The catholics/Vatican,they claim to follow Jesus,s path.But Jesus was a lowly man.He was not adorned with ornate jewellry and clothes and lived a simple life.All his followers of the day lived like him,expecting nothing for their preaching.The church of today with all their money could right a few wrongs in the world with the money they syphoned of people(heretics?)over the years.Why does the pope have to live in such plush luxuriousness,when he is ONLY a follower of Jesus.

Answer 1

I was homeless for over 3 years. The Catholic Church gave me food and shelter. Most fundamentalists gave me sermons and bogus reading materials. Peace be with you anyway.

Answer 2

For one the there is not Vatican treasure, stop reading the di Vinci Code, and as St. John Vianney said, who wore the simple clothes and had holes in his shoes, "At the door of the Catholic Church stops all poverty and I will only accepted the best for God." How can you not present God with the simple. Look at the temple of David it was extravagant. Hmmmm, sounds like the Vatican so was King David paying more attention to looks instead of worship, no he wanted to give the best to his king, the King of the Universe. The Church today does not have a lot of money in fact it could be right above the redline in the big picture due to allegations both true, sadly, and false, which is the common case. The only treasure that the church has and will have is the Eucharist. There is not luxuriy in the office of the papacy. Think about it your a 78 year old male who has to worry about 3 billion christians, 2 billion, don't belive that you are the Vicar of Christ on earth due to some lunitic in the 1500's, most of the the one billion Catholics don't know what the papacy is or what it consist of and citize it all the time because they are to lazy to go and pick up a dang book.

Answer 3

Pastor B says it all.
The Pope's own personal life is simplicity, as was John Paul the second. The outward 'show' of the buildings and garb is tradition, to the glory of God, and a way of 'lifting' the Christian towards this glory. Why don't you sell your house if you have one and give it to the poor?
Don't forget, the disciples said what a waste of money it was when the woman poured the expensive ointment on to the head of Jesus. They thought it would have been better spent on the poor. Jesus said that the poor will always be with us, but he would not. If the buildings and churches were pulled doen and the money given to the poor, it would be like a drop in the ocean and there would still be the poor. Poverty is caused by many reasons.

Answer 4

There is nothing wrong with giving an office of high authority the respect and honor it is due. The Pope does not own the Vatican, he owns little of his own...the Vatican belongs to the people of the Church, not to the Pope. He is a servent of God but a leader of the people. The Catholic faithful want the Vatican and their leader to hold a place of great glory to God. We have ornate churches to show how much we love God...it is in HIS honor. Not in honor of the Pope as a person...but in honor of his station...being the spiritual descendent of St. Peter himself and therefore Christ.

When God ordered the building of his temple, he ordered it to be ornate. With golden statues etc. King David, King Solomon...all lived in luxury. It isn't the luxury that is wrong...it is the love of it.

We could sell all the gold and silver the church owns as well as each person in the world could sell theirs too...and we could still not feed all the hungry or house all the homeless.

When the woman in the Bible poured expensive perfumed oil on the feet of Jesus, the pharisees asked the same thing. Jesus said...the poor will always be with you...but I will only be here a short time. This means there is nothing wrong with honoring God in this way.

I have to add that what WRF said is just so off the mark. We do not pray to the Pope and he did not ever change the Bible. That is just propaganda and as with most of that kind of stuff...it is absolutely wrong.

Answer 5

While not seeking to defend or to provoke argument it is a fact that the Church of England is the biggest land owner in Britain and the Queen who does not exactly live in poverty is the head of the Church. As I remember it Jesus lived his life in poverty. I would ask you this how many of us are prepared to give all our possesions away to follow him. It is all to easy to say I am a follower of Christ but should we all look first at ourselves before we criticise others. I once saw a brilliant question. If you were charged with the crime of being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you. It's worth thinking about.

Answer 6

The Vatican's yearly budget is about the size of that of the Archdiocese of Chicago. The funds go partly for the upkeep of the Vatican itself, partly for missionary and other work around the world. Not bad for an organization with a billion members. If someone thinks the Vatican is fabulously wealthy, perhaps asking for a little proof isn't out of line. If someone is a conspiracy theorist, no amount of argumentation will work. You could give the person a certified copy of all the secret Vatican financial records, and he'd just say that they're fakes ...I suppose we could ask why the Vatican has trouble balancing its rather small annual budget. The wealth of the Church is almost entirely in church buildings, hospitals, schools, and missions, plus artworks. You could sell off the artworks, but the proceeds wouldn't feed the poor of the world for even a day. If the Vatican sold all its artworks, they would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars -- but only once. Then they would be gone, and that money wouldn't go very far. (In the U.S. alone we spend hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars each year on welfare-related programs.) Second, the popes are custodians, not owners. They have a responsibility to preserve these [bequeathed/donated] artistic treasures for posterity, not to sell them off to private collections. Third, these artworks are things of beauty, and all beauty relates back to the one Beauty, which is God. The Church knows that we can approach God in many ways, and one of them is through beautiful art.

Perhaps you are not aware that there are hundreds of thousands of Catholic monks and nuns around the world who take a vow of poverty? They own nothing personally, and their shared homes, clothing, and food are not extravagant (sometimes even meager). Surely you know that the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a Catholic and that she has thousand of other Sisters of Charity imitating her around the world today. Perhaps you are not aware that the single largest private provider of money and goods to people in areas of drought, disaster, etc., is the U.S.-based "Catholic Relief Services?" -- and that there are other, similar Catholic organizations around the world. There is no entity, public or private, in the history of mankind, that has done as much for the needy (without regard to their race or religion) as the Catholic Church has done and continues to do. Much of the sacrificial giving is encouraged and even mandated by the very Vatican that you have heard falsely accused of accumulating riches.

Answer 7

Basically, the Christians are those who believe in Holy Trinity - The God Father, The Holy Spirit, The Jesus Christ as a God's Son. Catholicism matches this definition.

Answer 8

Much of the raiment for the Pope is designed to give praise to God through the creativeness and artistry of people engaged in that field. The clothes are worn during ceremonies adoring God and are an attempt to magnify the greatness that is God's but done in a human way, i.e., with the best that we can offer. The Catholic Charities do wonderful work throughout the world; Catholic non-profit hospitals perform a great service to so many people who could otherwise not afford proper health care; Catholic schools provide an immense service to so many children that could otherwise not be afforded a good education; individual Catholic churches provide help in the way of finances, clothing, medicines, etc., to destitute people. There are so many ways that can EASILY be discovered on the net that show the vast amounts of money that are gathered annually by the church and dispersed to millions of needy people throughout the world. The cost of the little bit of ceremonial garb used in services to give glory to God is a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the billions spent by the church in its mission, assigned by Christ, to 'love thy neighbor".

Answer 9

This is not the case for all denominations. Just look at the Southern Baptist for instance. They have quiet a few large 'mega'-churches with multi-million dollar budgets. And, they do tremendous work around the world. But the majority of their churches (about 75%) are so poor they can not financially support a pastor. So, he must work a secular job to survive. Most Baptist pastors hold a M.Div. degree (thats a professional graduate degree), and work for less than minimum wage. I know there are others also, I just happen to know a little about Baptist.

Answer 10

The Vatican, with all its wealth and glory, is very symbolic because of what there is inside. The building was built many a year ago and obviously it would be impossible to recreate something of that magnitude today, but today, its a place that is at the center of catholic tradition and at the center of what was one of the greatest empires. think about when it was built and who built it. like... dont put down the religion because of the lifestyles people lead. We don't live in israel 2000 years ago WITH jesus. times have changed and peolple adapt to their surroundings. it doesnt take away from their belief

Answer 11

I've always considered the catholic church to be corrupt. Not that all catholics are greedy or money hungry, some just follow the path of Jesus, but the whole politics and secrecy associated with the church is plain wrong. I definetly agree with you that the church could do so much good with all of thier money, instead of just stashing it under vatican city. But as far as the pope living in luxury, I don't have too much of a problem with that. He is an elected leader and as such, is given a new home to rule from(such as the president and the white house). Plus, I think after all the hard work he did to become Pope(corrupt or not), he deserves a cool place to hang out with his peeps(the cardinals)