The Wealthy Church

There are those who believe that the Church has a massive amount of wealth that it hoards instead of helping the poor. This tidbit from John Allen should help put things into perspective:

The Vatican has an annual operating budget of under $300 million, while Harvard University, arguably the Vatican of elite secular opinion, has a budget of $3.7 billion, meaning it’s 10 times greater. The Vatican’s “patrimony,” what other institutions would call an endowment, is around $1 billion. In this case, Harvard’s ahead by a robust factor of 30, with an endowment of $30.7 billion.

Those who point out the resources of the Church also never stop to think of the value of the services that the Church provides in terms of education, hospitals, and other social services. But from the earliest days, from St. Lawrence onward we know the true riches of the Church.