Friday, September 30, 2011

Wealth of churches vs the wealth of people

The Greek Orthodox Church is currently coming under pressure to take less and give more as the country faces a dire financial crisis that could have a global impact. 

The Church reportedly owns property worth up to 700 billion euros.

That is more than double the country's national debt, a report in France 24 claimed out on Monday - yet it is the Greek state that pays the salaries and pensions of all Orthodox clerics in the country.

Thousands of people have joined a Greek Facebook group entitled "Tax the Church".

However the Church has vehemently denied claims it is one of Greece's biggest tax dodgers.

Of course, much has been written about the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church over the centuries, with the Pope often labelled the richest man on earth.

One of the motives Henry VIII had for breaking with the Church in the 1530s was to gain control of the Church's wealth in England.

Much of the Vatican's wealth is tied up in art and property.

The Catholic Church considers the "excessive accumulation of wealth by a few" to be a mortal sin, according to statements publicised by head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, when the Church published a modernised list of the seven deadly sins in the Vatican newspaper in 2008.