[Cronos]

Tick -- just google the budget and you'll see that your statement You and I both know how much wealth is stored up in the catholic church though. To pretend otherwise is highly disingenuous. is incorrect -- firstly the budget is about $200 million odd IIRC. Secondly -- if you are talking about the "wealth" being the art stored there, then that is art that would not be sold but is there for people to visit and see -- would one have the sistine chapel cut into bits and sold?

Then Tick says The wealth under the direct control of the catholics is in the hundreds of billions, if not low trillions. -- oh, so now you mean all Catholics? First you said the Vatican, then the Catholic Church and now all Catholics -- is that what you mean?

[Nervous Tick]

Convince me that the vatican doesn’t have access to as much of that catholic wealth as they might ever need.