How much wealth does the Catholic Church and the Vatican own?

2023-09-09 09:04:00, Blog Janet Nguyen “Market Place”

According to some estimates, the Catholic Church, led by the Holy See in the Vatican, owns $73 billion in assets. This makes the church almost as rich as American billionaire Michael Bloomberg, and richer than countries like Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan or Croatia.

With 1.36 billion members worldwide, Catholics make up the largest religious group on the planet. The Catholic Church owns vast assets, including billions in real estate and some priceless art, not to mention the Vatican Bank. But its finances are mostly secret. For this reason, experts say that the exact calculation of this immense wealth is almost impossible. However, in some countries such as the United States and Germany, the churches have decentralized economic systems, says Xhejzana Berry, an investigative journalist who wrote the book "The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church".

"Only the Archdiocese of New York has so many churches, schools, hospitals and owns so much real estate. But very few of the dioceses make public their financial statements" - emphasizes Berri. A 2018 investigation by the Australian newspaper The Age revealed that the assets and investments of the Australian Catholic Church in the state of Victoria were worth more than 9 billion Australian dollars. The newspaper calculated that in total the church in Australia owns more
than A$30 billion in assets. This amount is approximately 25 billion US dollars. "Based on these figures, the Church is undoubtedly the largest owner of non-governmental properties" - the newspaper emphasizes. "Handelsblatt", one
German newspaper, also wrote in 2017 that Germany's Catholic dioceses own almost US$33 billion in assets.

Meanwhile, in the US, the Trinity Church alone has a portfolio worth $6 billion, The New York Times reported in 2019. This figure is roughly $7 billion this year if adjusted for inflation. The newspaper pointed out that this church is a real estate developer by "controlling rents on land and renting office space in buildings
it owns."

Meanwhile, financial data from 2021 show that the Institute for Religious Affairs, better known as the Vatican Bank, had a net profit of 18.1 million euros and had a total of approximately 2.8 billion euros in assets, amounting to more than $3 billion if adjusted for inflation.

The Vatican Bank has been at the center of several financial scandals. So in recent years, the church has tried to reform it. Last year, former Vatican Finance Minister Atte Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves spoke to Vatican News about the Holy See's financial statements for 2021, revealing that it had 3.9 billion euros in total assets, or nearly 5
billion dollars.

The Vatican, on the other hand, houses tens of thousands of works of art in its 26 museums, including the Sistine Chapel, which contains works by some of the most famous artists in history. There is also Raphael's fresco "School of Athens", and Michelangelo's fresco "Creation of Adam".

In 2004, a Vatican accountant said that St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel were priceless). Art dealer Robert Simon, owner of Robert Simon Fine Art in New York, says some of the paintings could fetch $40-50 million.

As with other church assets, Simon said trying to assess the value of the works of art currently owned by the Catholic Church is a nearly "impossible" task. The Catholic Church's worldwide holdings span nearly 717,426 square kilometers, or the size of the US state of Texas, says Gerald Posner, author of God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power in the Vatican. According to him, this includes embassies, churches, cathedrals, schools and monasteries.

And some of that real estate has a very high value. Posner takes St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York as an example. “Imagine how much a builder would value that land in the heart of Fifth Avenue. So we are talking about billions and billions of dollars in terms of real estate" - he points out.

How much wealth does the Catholic Church and the Vatican own?

The Catholic Church has a history of 2 millennia, and has historically exercised great power over people and states. The Holy See at the Vatican is estimated to own over $73 billion in cash and real estate and artwork. But its finances are largely secret, so an exact calculation is impossible. An investigation a few years ago
revealed that the Australian Catholic Church owns more than A$30 billion in assets.

A German media outlet claimed in 2017 that Germany's Catholic dioceses owned almost US$33 billion in assets. In the US, the Trinity Church alone owns $6 billion in assets. Data from 2021 showed that the Vatican Bank holds more than $3 billion in assets. This does not count the value of the tens of thousands of works of art in its 26 museums, including the Sistine Chapel, which contains works by some of the most famous artists in history. According to another estimate, the properties of the Catholic Church around the world cover an area of ??717,426 square km./ Adapted in Albanian by CNA