Pope Francis has called for world financial reform saying that we suffer from a dictatorship
of the economy, that the financial system had made life worse for millions of people
in rich and poor countries and he said there was a 'cult of money'.
Now this was interesting to hear from Pope Francis since the Catholic church and The
Vatican are well known for having a huge amount of wealth so we thought we'd put together
a list of the Catholic church and The Vatican's top 10 most valuable assets.
In a New Statesman article from 2011 the Pope was named the third biggest land owner in
the world.
The lands he own include 110 acres that make up the Vatican City inside Italy plus around
177 million acres from land plots all over the world that are owned by the Catholic church.
Only King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Queen Elizabeth of the UK own more land than the
current Pope.
According to an investigative report by The Guardian Mussolini's fascist regime gave The
Vatican a vast sum of money in the 1920s in return for papal recognition.
The Vatican used that money to set up a secretive property portfolio now worth more than 500
million pounds.
It includes 30 Saint James' Square, 168 New Bond Street, property in Coventry, Paris and
Switzerland.
The Vatican claim that the money was given to them as compensation for lost property.
The Vatican itself with all its museums is quite a good earner.
It receives up to 500 million visitors a year charging up to 16 euros per ticket and then
of course there's all the memorabilia on sale inside as well.
A very tidy earner indeed.
The Vatican owns a mind boggling collection of artworks including world famous pieces
by Michelangelo, Caravaggio and Raphael.
There's no way of telling how much they're all worth in total but if you imagine that
this Raphael sketch sold for close to £30 million on its own last year then imagine
rooms full of his paintings and 100s of rooms full of the worlds greatest painters.
Well Peter Watson suggested the church could raise around £17 billion for the poor by
selling off The Vatican's artwork.
Then there's all the other ones around the world.
There's even a theory which we've read that if the Catholic church decided to sell just
a tiny fraction of its collection it could cause the world market to collapse.
Two years ago a report in the German newspaper claimed that this publishing company was distributing
porn and erotica.
After the scandal it was widely reported that the church was about to sell off the company
but when we looked on the website we noticed it says this, "The company faces the daily
challenge of harmonizing its Christian world view with the requirements of the market in
a convincing manner.
It focuses strongly on its values.
Verlagsgruppe Weltbild's shareholders are 12 catholic dioceses in Germany, the Association
of German Dioceses as well as the Soldatenseelsorge Berlin."
In 2002 The Vatican dismissed reports that a brothel was operating on church grounds
in Moscow as 'smears'.
A statement from a Papal Spokesman said that Franciscan Friars had let out a flat on church
property to someone who without their blessing then used it as a brothel.
The Vatican condemned the behaviour saying it was part of a despicable operation to discredit
the church.
So we'd like to make clear that we are not saying that The Vatican makes money from brothels.
According to Berlin political scientist Carsten Frerk the Catholic church claims that it is
poor but the truth is that it hides its wealth.
His book, The Violent Book of Church Finances, estimates the cash assets of the churches
legal entities at about $50 billion.
Yes, billion, with a b.
The Economist magazine said that the annual spending by The Vatican and the church owned
entities in the United States alone was about $170 billion in 2010.
To put that in perspective the tech giant Apple has a cash pile of about $145 billion.
In addition to gold challis's and other valuable churches owned by individual churches around
the world over the past two thousand years the Vatican has built up a huge amount of
jewels and other ornamental items.
Among the collection are the fishermen's rings that have been individually made for each
new Pope.
They're the ones that you'll see being kissed by heads of state.
The actual value of these rings isn't known but to give you some idea of their worth Pope
Benedict's ring was made up of 35 grams of pure gold and took eight artisans working
15 hours a day for two weeks to make.
It's not all take though according to that Economist survey the church is the largest
charitable organization in the states, distributing nearly $5 billion dollars of aid to the poor
in 2010 alone.
A declassified 50-year-old treasury department memo written by Emerson Bigalow, yes that
is his real name, suggested that after the fall of Nazi Germany in 1946 members of the
fascist Ustaše government of Croatia sent 350 million confiscated swiss francs to the
Vatican for safe keeping.
The Vatican flatly deny this claim and say there is no basis in reality to the report.
Truth be told it's impossible to accurately estimate the true value of the Catholic church
and The Vatican because it's investment and assets are so well guarded.
A simple stroll around the Vatican City should give you some idea of the wealth the church
has accumulated over the years.
But the new Pope does seem to be shaking things up a bit.
While the former Pope Benedict was well known for his fashion sense and love of custom red
loafers the new Pope Francis seemed to take a much more humble and austere approach to
getting dressed.
Not only did he opt to wear black shoes instead of the traditional red ones for his first
public appearance but he also rejected having a fishermen's ring especially crafted for
him instead choosing to wear a silver ring which was originally made for Pope Paul VI.
Whether this more economical approach to papal life will spill over into Pope Francis selling
off the Vatican's assets however is yet to be seen.