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Pope issues mission statement for papacy

Grant said:
Was it not you who suggested the Vatican should sell its assets to help the poor?

Which part was unclear?
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That it made no sense for the Vatican to give to the poor.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Really? Holy **** it's not even close man. JUST IN THE UNITED STATES the catholic church spent 98 billion dollars (not a typo) providing healthcare, and 4.8 billion dollars on handouts and other charity causes.

That doesn't even account for the time donated by church members, nuns, etc who are out working in the community full time for no pay.

Now consider that the vast, vast majority of the church's charitable donations come from and are distributed overseas.... to places that really need it like Africa, Latin America, etc.

So the catholic church worldwide is estimated to be have annual income of $422.098 billion dollars, most of which is spent to do good work (the exact number isn't divulged, but since we know the estimate is about 5% of the American Catholic church's income, if we assume the same worldwide we get annual charitable donations of over 21 billion dollars, and over 200 billion dollars per year operating hospitals.)

Compare that with the Salvation Army, which has a global annual income of about 2 billion dollars, around half of which goes to actual charity work. The Catholic Church is at a minimum 20 times more charitable than the Salvation Army.

Now compare
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i missed the cite which would allow us to review the data in context
would you please share it with us
 
washunut said:
That it made no sense for the Vatican to give to the poor.
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I believe the Church should help the poor but not sell its assets and give them to the poor. What about you?
 
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justabubba said:
i missed the cite which would allow us to review the data in context
would you please share it with us
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You still believe that Sally Ann is bigger than the Catholic Church, as well as donating more?

You should continue believing that, and perhaps talk it up a little at your next social function.
 
Bigfoot 88 said:
He probably has good intentions but sounds like he doesn't understand economics.
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Oh, I would say he understands economics, psychology and sociology quite well; not to mention the sin nature of man.
 
Grant said:
I believe the Church should help the poor but not sell its assets and give them to the poor. What about you?
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I don't think the church should live in poverty, but its wealth seems unseemly to me.
 
washunut said:
I don't think the church should live in poverty, but its wealth seems unseemly to me.
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Most of the Churches are not wealthy and largely survive through donation. It also seems that Catholicism is growing throughout the world.
 
washunut said:
Words are nice, actions are better. Does this mean he will move out of the Vatican, sell off the billions of dollars worth of assets to help the poor. Or his advice only for others.
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I don't think the pope actually "owns" any of the Vatican's assets. I doubt he has any control over them to begin with. It would seem more than likely that the wrong pope in control of the Vatican's accounts would be able to drive it straight to ruin. So I'm guessing it works like a trust.
 
Hatuey said:
I don't think the pope actually "owns" any of the Vatican's assets. I doubt he has any control over them to begin with. It would seem more than likely that the wrong pope in control of the Vatican's accounts would be able to drive it straight to ruin. So I'm guessing it works like a trust.
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Since the Vatican is an absolute monarchy I find it difficult to imagine that he could not override previous arrangements for the custodianship of properties and artworks owned by his own state. He certainly has unilateral control over the Vatican Bank.
 
Grant said:
Most of the Churches are not wealthy and largely survive through donation. It also seems that Catholicism is growing throughout the world.
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The Vatican is not stuffed with all sort of art etc and it is poor is a bad joke. Visiting the Vatican I thought it was amazing that so many followers live in miserable poverty, yet the heads of the religion hoard so much wealth.
 
Sherman123 said:
Since the Vatican is an absolute monarchy I find it difficult to imagine that he could not override previous arrangements for the custodianship of properties and artworks owned by his own state. He certainly has unilateral control over the Vatican Bank.
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Religion and tradition does not trump legality. Even in the Vatican.

Institute for the Works of Religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The institute was founded by papal decree of Pope Pius XII in June 1942. Its assets are not property of the Holy See, and so it is not overseen by the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.[4] The Annuario Pontificio lists it under neither "Holy See" nor "Vatican City State", placing it among charitable foundations.[5][6]
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It seems only the surplus the bank makes is at the disposal of the Vatican.
 
Ray410 said:
The Pope is making a mistake by trying to subtly adopt the agenda and talking points of the American left. In the long run, this will greatly weaken the Catholic Church.
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How will it weaken the Catholic church?
 
washunut said:
The Vatican is not stuffed with all sort of art etc and it is poor is a bad joke. Visiting the Vatican I thought it was amazing that so many followers live in miserable poverty, yet the heads of the religion hoard so much wealth.
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I never said the Vatican was poor. In fact you can see what I wrote above your response.
 
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