Just to be fair, almost every piece of art "owned" by the Catholic Church (at least, in the Vatican Museums) actually belongs to the Italian Republic - the Vatican holds it all in trust in perpetuity. And so many of the masterpieces of the world today, not to mention the Scriptures themselves, would not exist except for the care of the Church over the centuries.
And in regards to the real estate - what, the parish churches, the schools, etc? Are you telling me the Church should not have Churches or Schools?
Frank,
The bottom line is, the RCC is worth BILLIONS of dollars. It has a porfolio of investments in every sector imagineable. It owns staggering amounts of art, jewels, gold & other precious metals and just about every other natural resource know to man. The value of it’s real estate worldwide is unimaginable. Without it’s vast wealth, the RCC’s power would be greatly diminished. God’s power on earth is The Holy Spirit. It is not dependant upon the wealth of the world. Christ told his apostles to give away everything they own & follow Him. I believe he would tell the pope of Rome (who lives like a king) the same thing.
Was it John who requested, in one of his epistles, that one of the other apostles bring his winter cloak, that he forgot so he could be warm for the approaching winter? Imagine that!?!? All Christ chosen few owned pretty much only the clothes on their backs & their parchments & Holy Books. Shall we take a peek inside PB16’s massive bejeweled walk-in closet?
The problem, though, is that one of the Popes bought a lot of those treasure you see in the Vatican with money from the indulgences. It’s nice we have those antiquities but the way they were purchases was really pathetic and definitely not Christlike.