German Archdiocese of Cologne Reveals $3.8 Billion Fortune
The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cologne published financial accounts
Wednesday, showing for the first time the full extent of its worldly
wealth.
The archdiocese has long been considered Germany's richest, but exact
figures weren't known because the church never published its accounts.
Documents posted on its website show Cologne had assets of 3.35 billion
euros ($3.82 billion) at the end of 2013.
Some 2.4 billion euros were invested in stocks, funds and company
holdings. A further 646 million euros were held in tangible assets,
mostly property. Cash reserves and outstanding loans amounted to about
287 million euros.
In 2013, the archdiocese received 573 million euros from church taxes
paid by the 2 million Catholics living in the region around Cologne,
famous for its Gothic cathedral. After adding other income and
subtracting expenses — such as salaries — it generated a surplus of 59
million euros.
The archdiocese's finance chief, Hermann J. Schon, described the
publication as "a big step toward financial transparency." It follows
criticism of Germany's Catholic Church in the wake of a recent scandal
over the former bishop of Limburg's lavish spending.
Pope Francis has stressed the need for the church to show humility and emphasize its work for the poor.
The Cologne archdiocese published its accounts on Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent, the period of reflection and repentance leading up to Easter week.
6 comments:
WHat about their porn publisher? When will they shut that down and repent?
I used to have a fantasy about Pope Benedict coming to America, having a large audience with the USCCB and proclaiming, "You're all fired!' (of course that would not be fair because maybe 2% deserved to keep their jobs).
Anyway, sounds like that's what Papa Frankie needs to do in the Fatherland.
Let me see if I understand the Catholic Church in Germany. Cardinal Kasper and the German Conference of Catholic Bishops and Pope Francis want to essentially change Church doctrine by allowing communion to Catholics living in adultrey. Yet they want to not only deny communion, but confession and absolution, annointing of the sick, and Christian burial to those Catholics who refuse to pay a large tax to the German bishops (all of whom make at least $7,000.00 a month......not a year, $7,000.00 per month). Does anyone see a problem. Of course not. If Francis is involved everything is just the bestest ever.
Dang, isn't it about time for the Germans to crank up and goose-step off on another insane goal of world conquest, led by some megalomaniac tyrant and his sado-masochistic automatons?
The Germans are great workers but terrible leaders, while the French are the opposite. The two nations really should come to some agreement respecting this.
JBS, we obviously have a disagreement over the definition of "great leaders."
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