How did catholic church acquire its wealth?

Answer 1

The catholic church used to earn their money by basically charging people for forgiveness. Martin Luther first rejected this idea, and formed his own church (The Lutheran church) * * * clarification In the present age, each individual community church is dependent upon it's congregation for monetary support. All bills and debts, as well as the salaries of all people employed by the parish, ( the parish priests are counted as employees, and their salary is set by the diocese in which they serve.) Should a parish not be able to meet it's budget, and find it necessary to borrow money, it may borrow only from the diocese and is considered a loan which the parish must pay back with interest. Each parish is assessed to support the chancery offices, and contribute to the fund to help other parishes. In the diocese which I am a member (US) a parish with a school is assessed 7% of all Sunday and Holy Day Collection, a parish without a school is assessed 7 1/2%. [this includes parishes that are already in debt to the diocese.] The great "wealth" of the church is not in any bank, but is determined by the insured value of artifacts and the works of art and held by the church. For example... When shipped to the World's Fair in 1964 the Pieta was insured for $10,000,000. Modern full size replicas sell for $200,000 [these replicas are made by private individuals not connected with the Vatican].

Answer 2

To understand this, let's consider a noble from the Middle Ages who had three sons. The first son would inherit all his estate (under primogeniture). The second son would typically join the army or navy. The third would "take the cloth", meaning he would join the church or a monastery. In order to join, a gift of land was required. Hence, over hundreds of years and literally thousands upon thousands of monasteries, the gifts of land accumulated to the state that the Pope directly or indirectly owned 1/3 of the land in Europe.

.

Catholic AnswerFirst of all, let's put this question into reality. There is no "Roman Catholic Church".

It's just Catholic, not Roman Catholic. Roman is an epithet first commonly used in England after the protestant revolt to describe the Catholic Church. It is never used by the official Catholic Church.

Secondly, "Catholic Church refers, in a general sense, to the entire Church of Christ that owes obedience to the Pope. In actually, this consists of over 3,000 diocese, archdioceses, and other territorial units. Each one of them is called a "particular Church". In other words, each of those 3,000 dioceses is a Catholic Church in its own right, headed by a successor of the apostles, a bishop, and solely owning its property and buildings in that given area. There is no world-wide Catholic Church that OWNS everything. The Vatican is a small, nay, TINY country inside the city of Rome. The Vatican is "owned" by a trustee - the reigning Holy Father, but he holds everything in trust for Catholics throughout the world that will go there to see its history. Most individual dioceses are rich as far as owning land and buildings, but, again, they are not "wealthy". All of their money is used for charitable work, keeping buildings running, educating youth, etc. The idea that there is a world wide Catholic Church that is wealthy is a big misconception.

Answer 3

Roman Catholic AnswerThe vast majority of the Church's income is from voluntary offerings.