How rich is the Catholic Church in Germany?
The Bishop of Limburg's lavish new headquarters sparked anger at the Catholic Church's use of money in Germany. Its wealth has been estimated at €430 billion with interests ranging from television stations to mineral water.
Published: 18 Oct 2013 09:19 CET
The €31-million bill for Franz-Tebartz Van-Elst's residence, including €15,000 on a bath tub and €350,000 on built-in-wardrobes, has put the finances of the Catholic Church, much of which comes from taxpayers and state subsidies, into the spotlight.
Carsten Frerk, an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church in Germany, estimated its wealth at around €430 billion with about €140 billion of that in capital, the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reported.
Frerk researched the church's ledgers for a year for a book published in October 2010. But only a small part of the church's finances are public and many of their records remain secret.
The opaqueness of the church's finances was no surprise to Frerk. "For the big churches, transparency is very damaging to their business plan. Nobody wants to donate to a rich organization," he said.
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20131018-52455.html
A liquid €140 billion? Even given that Frerk has an ax to grind, that sounds high. My impression is that most of the assets of the Church around the world is in nonliquid assets such as buildings, land and artwork accumulated over centuries. It's as much a curator of human heritage as it is an owner of assets. I'd like to see more hard figures on this.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carsten_Frerk&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcarsten%2Bfrerk%2Bwiki%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D602