DISQUS

cassie · 4 months ago

I wonder if it ALL has to do with the economy? Maybe a lot of it has to do with the number of people leaving the church because they are flat disgusted with the church's stand on so many issues as well as the consistent coverup of the sexual abuse of children. Haven't the numbers of those identifying themselves as Catholic gone waay down in recent years?

NotTimothyGeithner · 4 months ago

I don't think so. The Vatican doesn't run the finances of the global Church, and its activities aren't dependent on the collection plate. They have plenty of money and business interests. If Catholic Charities or the local dioceses are running deficits, they are more likely to face deficits from drops in attendance.

GoBlue · 4 months ago

I won't discount the possibility of financial mismanagement, but the fact is that the only priests who take a vow of poverty are those who join a religious order that requires one, like the Franciscans. That does not include Joseph Ratzinger, aka Benedict XVI, or most of the parish priests around the world.

Indigo · 4 months ago

In the Big Bad Whirld of accounting, that almost balances. Only 1.1K € deficit? Let's see household accounts do better. Speaking of fabulous riches, and the Vatican has lots of them, imagine every one of the statues from the Hall of Statues in the Vatican Museum on eBay: the international art market collapses. I'll start the bidding at 1.1K € for the Apollo Belvidere.

GinINdiana · 4 months ago

My heart just bleeds for them. NOT.
After all the lies they've told, they are now getting their own back right where it hurts the most: the Prada pocketbook.
Let them sell off their vast wine and liquor collections, their jewels, their gold IDOLS, and other magnificent artwork and get back to what Jesus said to do. Leave your shit and follow me.

EML · 4 months ago

It being Sunday morning, I thought I would share this story from my favorite religious website (episcopalcafe);

In his latest book, Out of the Shadows into the Light: Christianity and Homosexuality, Miguel A. De La Torre writes,

“As Robert McAfee Brown points out, “What someone brings to scripture often determines what it is they take from scripture,” or, we might say, it all depends on the question asked. If you ask what the Bible says about homosexuality, from the very start you’re on shaky ground because homosexuality is not a biblical concept. Even assuming that the Bible offers an evaluation of sex between two men (women are given short shrift, a mixed blessing), the texts typically cited-only a scant handful-are obscure, and their meaning is highly contested. Moreover, these texts do not address covenantal love between co-equal partners. Comedian Lynn Lavner’s observation puts things into proper perspective. “The Bible,” she notes, “contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love heterosexuals. It’s just that they need more supervision.”

Butch1 · 4 months ago

I've always liked that quote as well. It throws the homophobic straight person's charade of finger pointing back into their own faces with humour.

erip · 4 months ago

I am crying rivers of tears that the homophobic antisemetic bigoted vatican is running out of money.. one can only hope..
maybe they wont be able to buy as many dresses to wear...
or better yet maybe they can have a yard sale to raise some money

Butch1 · 4 months ago

Perhaps, the "little rich prince" should actually, divert the money to the poor who need all the help they can get. It's strange that both priests and nuns vow to give everything away and live a life of poverty. In reality, it is only the nuns who have followed their vow. The priests might as well say, "What you talkin' about, Willis?" They obviously do quite well in their retirement after acquiring many things along the way. It truly is a "patriarchal pyramid scheme."

cosanostradamus · 4 months ago

.
I heard Pope Ratzo is down to his last six altar boys.

He was seen at a monte de pieta in Rome recently, trying to pawn the Pieta.

I'm tellin' ya folks, it's hard out there for a Pope!

Ba-dum-bum.
.

devlzadvocate · 4 months ago

Didn't they have a lawsuit crisis paying out millions prior to an economic crisis?

Isn't the Catholic Church the largest landowner in the world?

Didn't that guy in the Vatican take a vow of poverty?

Jesus fits in there, how?

garbo · 4 months ago

Sorry people, but the Pope doesn't wear Prada. He has always had his shoes fixed time and again by the old cobbler across the street, who is still doing it. He received a few pairs of red/burgundy shoes from an Italian firm as a gift. The shoes of Popes had traditionally been red. His own private income up till a few decades agao came from academic lecturing ( and I know what they earn..... not much) and his books. He receives no salary as Pope but expences ( food and clothes) naturally paid. He has always lived frugally because he grew up that way. The previous Pope had nothing. No earthly riches at all, and that is a fact. The "dresses" they wear are mostly made and embroidered by nuns.

Anyhow, enjoy the bashing of your straw men.

MikeinSanJo · 4 months ago

None of this changes the fact that the vatican (and the pope) controls arguably the greatest collection of art and treasure on the planet. Certainly a few pieces of the collection were legitimately acquired as donations or purchases, but most were stolen at terrible cost to the rightful owners.

And I would be willing to bet that as a result of the unscrupulous origins of their collection, the only real and accurate record of the entire contents is handwritten on a dusty scroll of parchment stored way deep in the archives, so no one really even knows what they have and what it's worth.

The biggest problem for the vatican is that people worldwide are starting to wise up and demand retribution and restitution for all the crimes committed by the vatican and its representatives (the "church" in general - a bunch of crooks and worse) in the name of their imaginary mythological god.

Throughout history, nothing has been as destructive and caused as much pain as organized religion. Islam, Judaeism, Christianity, Scientology, The Moonies, The People's Temple, ANY organization that uses dogma to idolize and worship a god or god-like entity. It is nothing more than a means for the rich and elite to control the masses - keeping them poor by convincing them to tithe from their already meager wages (what does a god need with money?), making certain to keep an enemy in the wings - someone to preach against so the imaginary god can be seen as some protector or vanquisher of "evil" (as defined by the rich, fat, lascivious child-molesting preacher behind the podium) and keep the tithes coming in.

Religion has always been used to frighten ignorant peoples before science was around to explain fire, rain, lightning, thunder, earthquakes, sink holes, plagues, eclipses, sandstorms and all those other natural events that seem really freaky and scary until you knew what was going on.

Let the bastard go broke! I'm counting on this dinosaur being the last pope!