The Vatican: Mammon's Holy Church

Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.



While the Vatican is actually its own country and technically has no responsibility to the surrounding country or its population... They also claim to be the only true church of God...

My question is.... Which God do they actually represent?

The son of God stated specifically "You can only serve one master"

Now this is ironic because the Vatican is actually a bank with an estimated worth of approx. 8-15 Billion dollars!

Bankers' best guesses about the Vatican's wealth put it at $10 billion to $15 billion. Of this wealth, Italian stockholdings alone run to $1.6 billion, 15% of the value of listed shares on the Italian market. The Vatican has big investments in banking, insurance, chemicals, steel, construction, real estate. Dividends help pay for Vatican expenses and charities such as assisting 1,500,000 children and providing SOME measure of food and clothing to 7,000,000 needy Italians.

Read more: www.time.com...

In February 2010 the pope payed a visit to a homeless shelter in Rome... and he stated "the church will not abandon you...

Rome, Italy, Feb 14, 2010 / 12:20 pm (CNA).- The Holy Father paid a visit to the homeless shelter at Rome's central Termini Station on Sunday morning along with a number of Church, local government and business representatives. He spoke to the gathering of the importance of charity in promoting human dignity and building an civilization of love.

In his address to mark the occasion, Pope Benedict XVI recognized the many benefactors, workers and volunteers who employ themselves daily to taking action on the words of Jesus, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me..."

Directing his words to those assisted through these efforts, a number of whom were in attendance, the Holy Father said, "know that the Church loves you profoundly and won't abandon you, because it recognizes in every one of your faces the face of Christ" who identified himself particularly with the poor and indigent.

www.catholicnewsagency.com...


Yet two years laters nothing has changed... In fact its gotten worse...

Rome, October 9 2012– Over 47,000 people in Italy are
without a proper roof over their head, the national statistics
agency said on Tuesday. In the last two months of 2011, 47,648 people used the soup
kitchens and night shelters made available for the homeless in
the country’s 158 largest municipalities, Istat said. The majority of homeless people are male (86.9%), aged less
than 45 (57.9%) and foreign (59.4%), and they are concentrated
primarily in the north of Italy (38.8%) and in big cities such
as Milan (27.5%) and Rome (16.4%). The condition of homelessness has persisted for an average
of 2.5 years, with the figure for Italians rising to 3.9 years
compared to 1.6 years for non-Italians. Just over 28% of homeless people are in employment,
although this is usually on a fixed-term or irregular basis.

www.lifeinitaly.com...

Now personally Math isn't my strong subject... but even I can see a serious issue here...

If the Vatican has several Billion dollars... and there are literally tens of thousands of "homeless" people in the surrounding area of Rome... they could literally give each of these people 10k dollars without even breaking that first billion... actually it would amount to approx. half of 1 billion dollars to solve the homeless problem in all of Rome...

So why does the Vatican need to horde money when the person they worship speaks against riches of the material world?

The answer is in the title of the thread... The Vatican is the church of Mammon...

The God of material wealth...

And amazingly enough... their administration seems to forget one of the main teachings of Jesus that is repeated in all of the synoptic gospels...

Matthew 19:23
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The Vatican is just another bank... ruled behind the scenes by international bankers...

The church of Mammon...

Who are responsible for making this world a living Hell on earth... by using the beliefs of Christianity to support its cause...

Material weath

Two facts that you're apparently not aware of:

In that laundry list of Vatican assets ("investments in banking, insurance, chemicals, steel, construction, real estate") guess which one is the largest? Yep, real estate. And guess what most of that real estate is? Yep, churches and cemeteries, not exactly things that the church can "unload to help the poor."

Secondly, Catholic Charities USA is one of the largest charitable services organizations in the world. In fiscal year 2008, Catholic Charities USA, whose motto is "Working to Reduce Poverty in America", spent $3.42 billion (with a "B") on charitable services.

And that's just in the United States. Show me another church that can claim that.

A bank is the last thing I would have thought the Vatican was. I thought their so-called mindblowing wealth was actually in its belongings and ancient art, not actual money. It's not like you can shave off a fresco and spend it somewhere.

Originally posted by adjensen
And that's just in the United States. Show me another church that can claim that.

Isn't that just funny? We've got Protestant churches who decry Catholicism as a Satanic entity while at the same time being so insular that they can see the insides of their colons.

Originally posted by adjensen
Two facts that you're apparently not aware of:

In that laundry list of Vatican assets ("investments in banking, insurance, chemicals, steel, construction, real estate") guess which one is the largest? Yep, real estate. And guess what most of that real estate is? Yep, churches and cemeteries, not exactly things that the church can "unload to help the poor."

Secondly, Catholic Charities USA is one of the largest charitable services organizations in the world. In fiscal year 2008, Catholic Charities USA, whose motto is "Working to Reduce Poverty in America", spent $3.42 billion (with a "B") on charitable services.

And that's just in the United States. Show me another church that can claim that.

Actually im quite aware of that...

Lets see...

Investments in banking which helps promote material wealth...

Investments in "insurance" which is an industry that literally steals the wealth populous BY FORCE...

Chemicals... Who knows... likely can't be good

Steel? I would assume most of the steel is used in the manufacturing of instruments of war...

And Grave yards... Meh... No beef with that really

Why are they working to reduce poverty in America when the much of the population of Rome is homeless?

Why do they horde money... when their saviour speaks against it?

What could they possibly need with 15 billion dollars?

Thanks for your reply btw

Originally posted by Akragon
Why do they horde money... when their saviour speaks against it?

What could they possibly need with 15 billion dollars?

You're aware how an endowment works, right? (The Way Things Work: The endowment on the off-chance that you don't.) Your original article referenced that the church was using dividends from their investments to take care of the poor -- dividends imply endowments.

It's quite likely that they can't spend that money.

Thanks for your reply btw

Happy to help

You're welcome... *dryly*

One thing is certain, the Priests don't go hungry and they will always have a roof over their head. They surround themselves with Gold and Jewels while their flock starve to death. The quicker this hypocritical pedophile organization bite's the dust, the better.

Originally posted by DrunkYogi
One thing is certain, the Priests don't go hungry and they will always have a roof over their head. They surround themselves with Gold and Jewels while their flock starve to death. The quicker this hypocritical pedophile organization bite's the dust, the better.

easy man...

You can't group an entire religion consisting of several million people into the that ring...

the few sparse individuals don't represent the group

You know what would be useful? If every time someone complained about someone else not doing enough to help the poor, they'd reach into their own pocket and donate ten bucks to the cause. It's a lot less self-serving than complaining, but a heck of a lot more effective.

And, in this season of almsgiving, I'll start it off. In return for the above complaint, I just donated ten dollars to Habitat for Humanity. I'd have done it in Arkagon's name, but they didn't have that option

Originally posted by Akragon
They also claim to be the one true church of God.

All religions think they are the 'right' ones. Otherwise, they wouldn't be around ... and all their members would go join some other group. You hear it from the Catholics, the Baptists, the Church of Christ, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Muslims, the Mormons, the Amish, .... everyone. As for the money thing ... nearly all religions have to deal with money these days. There are taxes to be paid and buildings to pay for and rent to pay for and gas/electricity to pay for, etc etc. So there will be no getting rid of money from most of the religions of the world.

Originally posted by DrunkYogi
One thing is certain, the Priests don't go hungry and they will always have a roof over their head. They surround themselves with Gold and Jewels while their flock starve to death.

Most priests are parish priests or are part of religious orders that take vows of poverty. They dont' have gold and jewels. And most people who are Catholic aren't 'starving to death' while the priests sit in a pile of gold or whatever... that's just silly.

Catholics in poor countries .. like India ... help each other and the priests are poor as well. That's why Mother Teresa's order is doing so well ... and other orders that help in poor places.

reply to post by adjensen

I'd have done it in Arkagon's name, but they didn't have that option

I appreciate that...

but at least spell the name right brother... geez

I woulde like to see where you got the information regarding the land holdings of the Church. While i am sure that there are alot of churches and cemetaries owned by the Church, I am certain that a large part of the land holdings here in New Mexico are farmlands that are leased out at a nice profit for the Church. In Mexico as well, the Church ownes large amounts of farm land and other real estate investments. The Vatican is the third largest landholder in the world, it has at its disposal vast resources and the wealth can only be estimated as it reports to no one what its actual monetary assests and other holdings are valued at. Most Catholic istitutions which were originally a service to the impoverished are now money making enterprises. Catholic school was once the best option for the poor that could not afford the cost of sending their children to school, now only the well off can afford to send their children to Catholic school. Catholic run hospitals were the same way, a service to the poor. Now they run their own insurance companies. the tax exempt status of this entity helps to build up that bottom line even more. Each Sunday a chubby parish priest stands and asks the poor people to give even more money from their meager earnings to support God's work in small towns all over this poor state. I almost did not recieve my first hloly communion beacuse the priest felt that my family had not given enough money to the church, even though the new stage and metal gazebo were built by my father at no cost to the church in his off time from work. The more you give, the more they ask for. Give till it hurts. Isn't one of the publishing companies the Church ownes a german porn publisher, I thought I heard that somewhere.

reply to post by borracho

Each Sunday a chubby parish priest stands and asks the poor people to give even more money from their meager earnings to support God's work in small towns all over this poor state.

With statements like that, you obviously don't care about the facts which do not coincide with your biases.

reply to post by adjensen


That statement is a fact. The Chubby priest at Our Lady of Belen in central New Mexico does exactly what I stated. Should I go and get a video of it for you?
Just in case you were wondering, I am a strong believer and love my Catholic faith, it's my church I doubt.

Originally posted by borracho
reply to post by adjensen

 

That statement is a fact. The Chubby priest at Our Lady of Belen in central New Mexico does exactly what I stated.

So you think that the weight of someone is indicative of their charitable nature? You like to judge people on their appearances?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/tw5131067e.jpg[/atsimg]
That's Hugh McColl, the former former Chairman and CEO of Bank of America. Looks like a pretty skinny guy to me, so I guess that Bank of America probably takes care of the homeless, eh?

reply to post by adjensen


Not based on his appearance, no. It is due in large part to his love of donuts. I just don't see how anyone that eats that much has taken a vow of poverty and wants to feed the hungry. Obviously you want to defend chubby people, and that's fine. I am talking about the Church and its hypocrosy towards charity. Do you think that priests who took a vow of poverty should be able to buy a new car every three years? Why not take on some of the other points I brought up? Whether or not the priest is fat has no bearing on the fact that the Church is the third largest landholder in the world. It does not address the vast amounts of monetary funds and treasures at the disposal of the Church. Have you done any research on how the Church treated the peasants of Mexico before the revolution?

Originally posted by borracho
reply to post by adjensen

 

Not based on his appearance, no. It is due in large part to his love of donuts.

Again, you're judging someone on superficial aspects of their personality, which is incredibly shallow. Maybe your priest is a creep, maybe he's not, but a) that's not for you to judge and b) that's hardly reflective of every other person in the Catholic church.

Originally posted by borracho
I woulde like to see where you got the information regarding the land holdings of the Church.

I'd like to see the same thing from you, Borracho.

It's hard to form opinions based on hearsay. It would be helpful if you had some links.

Thanks!

Eric

reply to post by EricD

www.mint.com...

www.businessinsider.com...

www.time.com...

www.foxnews.com...

Bankers' best guesses about the Vatican's wealth put it at $10 billion to $15 billion. Of this wealth, Italian stockholdings alone run to $1.6 billion, 15% of the value of listed shares on the Italian market. The Vatican has big investments in banking, insurance, chemicals, steel, construction, real estate. Dividends help pay for Vatican expenses and charities such as assisting 1,500,000 children and providing some measure of food and clothing to 7,000,000 needy Italians. Unlike ordinary stockholders, the Vatican pays no taxes on this income, which led the leftist Rome weekly L'Espresso last week to call it "the biggest tax evader in Italy."

Here you go.