{"id":10144,"date":"2020-09-14T21:03:08","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T21:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lavozlit.com\/?p=10144"},"modified":"2020-09-14T21:03:08","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T21:03:08","slug":"the-catholic-church-does-not-have-the-right-to-be-the-voice-of-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2020\/09\/14\/the-catholic-church-does-not-have-the-right-to-be-the-voice-of-the-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Catholic Church Does Not Have the Right To Be the \u201cVoice of the Poor\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, the Pope made statements in which he denounced that the coronavirus pandemic aggravated the \u201csocial inequalities\u201d characteristic of the current economy. What is the objective of this denunciation?<\/em>
\n 
\nBy: Alejandro Iturbe. Sept\/05\/2020<\/strong><\/em>
\nTranslation: Corriente Obrera Lit-ci U.S.<\/em>
\nIn a speech broadcast from the Vatican, which had worldwide exposure, Jorge Bergoglio said: \u201cThe pandemic has highlighted and aggravated social problems, especially the gap between social classes \u2026 of a sick economy\u201d in which a very rich few possess more than all the rest of humanity\u201d [1].
\nWe have, then, statements with progressive content that take up the demands usually made by the left against the capitalist system. This statements don\u2019t explain the causes of that \u201csick economy\u201d nor do they propose a way to \u201ccure\u201d it.
\nHowever, that is not our main objection. Does the Catholic Church have the right to present itself as \u201cthe voice of the poor\u201d in the face of so many injustices? The answer is an absolutely no<\/b>.
\nThe world\u2019s largest enterprise<\/b>
\nIn 2015, Italian journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi published the book Avarizzia on the basis of information provided by the Spanish Catholic priest Luis Angel Vallejo, former papal steward [2].
\nIn that book, the author concludes that, considered as a whole, the Catholic Church is the \u201clargest company in the world\u201d in terms of the amount of property, the income it receives, the reserves it possesses, and the privileges it receives from many countries. In the latter case, one must begin with the fact that it is the only \u201ccompany\u201d that formally possesses its own State (the Vatican), with all the advantages that this implies.
\nBesides an incalculable capital in real estate, the Catholic Church has various sources of income. Among them, the donations of its faithful, what the Vatican collects as a religious and tourist center, the tax exemptions and direct contributions that the national episcopates receive from their States and, finally, the return on countless investments (some of which are \u201csecret\u201d).
\nHow many properties does the Catholic Church own?<\/b>
\nThis real estate capital is practically impossible to calculate in its entirety, since besides those properties directly in the name of the Vatican, it has properties in each of the thousands of dioceses distributed throughout the world, those of the ecclesiastical orders and those of decentralized structures such as Opus Dei, which functions as a personal prelacy of the Pope.
\nFor example, in Spain alone the Church registered 18,555 temples and 15,171 urban and rural properties in the corresponding bodies. It did so through the system of \u201cimmatriculation,\u201d which allows for the registration of that domain without having to report its origin or how those goods were acquired.
\nThese properties include the houses attached to parishes, school buildings, seminaries and universities, farms dedicated to agricultural activities, houses and apartments. The list includes luxurious five-star hotels built in former monasteries, whose suites have an exclusive butler, private terraces with panoramic views, Jacuzzi, etc.
\nSpain is not the only country \u201cgraced\u201d with this level of hotels. In Peru, there is the Hotel Monasterio, located one block from the Plaza de Armas, in the heart of Cusco city. The property where it is located was the Seminary of San Antonio Abad, founded in 1598. It is administered by the Orient Express hotel company. Next to it is La Casa de las Sierpes, built on top of an Inca construction that was converted into the Beaterio de las Nazarenas in the 18th century, administered by the same company [4].
\nContributions by the faithful<\/b>
\nWe have pointed out that a first source of income for the Catholic Church is the monthly contributions made by believers. It is a system inherited from the tithe of the Middle Ages which now has no legally binding character and only a part of the faithful contribute.
\nThe total amount that the Church receives in the world from these contributions is very difficult to estimate since, as we have pointed out, the national episcopal conferences and the dioceses themselves have financial autonomy and budget for income and expenses. Let us see then, some national data.
\nIn Spain, according to the Catholic Church\u2019s Annual Report of Activities data, it received 335 million Euros by this means, which covered 36% of its budget (400 million and 1.1 billion dollars, respectively)[5]. In Germany, this figure of contributions from the faithful amounted, in 2012, to 5.2 billion Euros (almost 6 billion dollars). In this country, most of these contributions were collected by the state through the so-called \u201cchurch tax\u201d [6].
\nHowever, the record for collection from this source is held by the U.S. Church, a country in which almost 21% of the population claims to be Catholic (some seventy million people). The annual average per contributor is $709, although there are those who reached 4,000. In total, it is estimated that it collects around 20 billion dollars annually. To give you an idea, the annual budget of St. Philip\u2019s Church in Atlanta, Georgia, alone was three million dollars, and at the national level the U.S. Catholic Church manages its own financial fund for the retirement and pensions of priests who retire [7].
\nPrivileges and benefits<\/b>
\nConsidered as an international company, the Catholic Church receives a series of privileges and benefits that no multinational (at least, so extensively) has.
\nIn the first place, it is the only one that has its own State (the Vatican), which means that it relates to other States and governments on an equal level, without the need to hide or camouflage this relationship. This is complemented by the fact that in many countries, the national episcopal conferences are part of the \u201cpower factors\u201d permanently consulted by the governments to elaborate their policies.
\nIn addition, it gets many privileges. In Argentina for example, the Catholic Church does not pay any tax on the movable and immovable assets it owns, whatever the destination of these assets. In some provinces, like Mendoza, this is guaranteed by the provincial Constitution itself [8]. While in others, such as C\u00f3rdoba, it is stipulated in the Tax Code [9].
\nThe benefits it obtains in this country do not end there. In accordance with what the National Constitution itself establishes about \u201csustaining Catholic worship,\u201d various laws establish that the Argentine State must cover bishops\u2019 salaries; subsidize the priests who are in border or \u201cvery disadvantaged\u201d areas; subsidize the seminarians; and subsidize (private) Catholic schools[10].
\nWe have taken the Argentine case but similar situations are found in many other countries. For example, in Brazil (considered the country with the largest Catholic population in the world), the 1988 Constitution (currently in force) establishes \u201creligious tax immunity\u201d not only for the properties of the Catholic Church but also for other religions[11]. We have already seen the case of Germany (also of Austria) where it is the State itself which collects the contributions of the faithful, through the \u201cchurch tax\u201d.
\nVatican world<\/b>
\nIn addition to everything we have seen (theoretically dedicated to the support of worship, education, charity, etc.) the Catholic Church clearly shows us its business operation.
\nA first aspect of this is the functioning of the Vatican itself as a State, which for example, does not calculate a GDP but a budget of income, expenses and results, like a company.
\nThe second aspect is that the Vatican functions as a true tourist-religious pole: it is visited daily by 40,000 people (about 15 million a year). According to data from the World Factbook, in 2011 they received about 460 million dollars in sales of tourist products and books, tickets to Vatican Museums, etc.; with a total operational expenditure of less than 300 million [12].
\nIn addition, if you have enough money and connections, it is possible to rent the Sistine Chapel for private events. This is what the automobile company Porsche did, which in 2014 rented it for an exclusive music concert attended by 40 people who paid five thousand euros each. However, the entrance fee included a dinner at the Vatican Museums [13].
\nThe Vatican Bank<\/b>
\nAnother openly businesslike facet of the Catholic Church is the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), also known as the Vatican Bank, created in 1942 to centralize funds for \u201creligious or charitable activities.
\nThe IOR administers assets worth 7 billion euros (more than $8 billion) [14]. It also has \u201cofficial\u201d gold reserves of 3.5 billion euros, as well as an estimated equal amount of unofficial reserves [15]. This makes it the second largest reserve of this precious mineral in the world, only surpassed by the one in Fort Knox, U.S.
\nLike any other bank, the IOR has been linked to financial scandals and fraud. Among the best known were its relationship with and investments in Banca Privata Finanziaria, owned by the Sicilian banker Michele Sindona, linked to the mafia in that region, in the 1960s [16].
\nAlso, its association with Banco Ambrosiano, owned by banker Roberto Calvi, since the early 1970s. In 1982, this bank collapsed amidst a major financial fraud that included the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans to fictitious companies based in Latin America. Calvi fled Italy on a false passport and was soon found hanging from a bridge in London. The director of the IOR, U.S. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, who should have been prosecuted for providing the letters of credit that supported those loans, got away by means of diplomatic immunity provided by Vatican citizenship, and continued as president of the Vatican Bank until 1989.
\nThe \u201choly\u201d investments<\/b>
\nBut if there is one thing that is starkly apparent about this aspect of the Catholic Church\u2019s multinational conglomerate, it is the vastness and variety of its investments in shares and other assets of private companies.
\nWhile there is no written Decalogue, any Catholic in good faith would assume that investments are directed to companies that \u201cdo good\u201d. One of their advisors in this type of acquisition is a specialized private company called Altum Faithful Investing, which privileges those companies whose activity is \u201cconsistent with the Catholic faith,\u201d such as \u201cdefense of human life, nature, promotion of peace\u201d<\/b>[18].
\nHowever, it seems that this criterion limits somewhat the possibility of obtaining good profits from these investments, and the spectrum opens up to a much wider range (some of them are \u201csecret\u201d).
\nA complete list includes numerous Italian and foreign banks, such as Chase, Rotschild, Morgan, and Credit Suisse; automobile companies such as Fiat and General Motors; hotels and casinos; construction, steel, and oil companies, such as Shell, Exxon, and Gulf Oil, etc. [19]
\nSome of the investments are clearly non sanctas. For example, the IOR is one of the main owners (20% of its shares) of the company Pietro Beretta Ltda, the world\u2019 s leading manufacturer of non-warlike firearms [20].
\nBut the prize in the area of non-holy investments is probably won by a Slovenian archdiocese (Maribor) that had acquired a TV channel that broadcast pornography. The archdiocese had been bankrupt since 2011, and \u201cto avoid bankruptcy, the Vatican bank transferred 40 million euros to the diocese in 2014, at the express wish of Pope Francis,\u201d according to the book Avarizzia, already cited.
\nAgain, the statements by Pope Francis<\/b>
\nWe begun this article by stating that the Catholic Church does not have the right to present itself as \u201cthe voice of the poor\u201d simply because it is part (one of the major ones) of the powerful of this world; of the \u201cvery rich few who possess more than all the rest of humanity\u201d.
\nAs much as they want to sell us the image of sacrifice of characters like Sister Teresa of Calcutta (without entering into the debate of ideology and the message that their actions transmit), the truth is that the majority of their dignitaries (cardinals, archbishops, bishops, high hierarchies) live a luxurious life worthy of any great bourgeois.
\nIn his book, Fittipaldi recounts the case of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who when he was Secretary of State of the Vatican (a sort of Prime Minister), in 2012, spent 24,000 euros on a tourist helicopter trip and, in those years, financed remodeling work on his apartment in Rome (which cost 200,000 euros) with money that should have been destined to the health care of the children of the Bambin Ges\u00fa Hospital. The cardinal defended himself saying that: \u201cThe apartments assigned to the cardinals of the Roman curia\u2026 are restored by the administration of the Holy See\u201d.
\nSuch hypocrisy causes disgust. But this is still not the central problem in the statements of Pope Francis. It is necessary to analyze the political objectives for which the current head of one of the richest and most powerful institutions in the world makes statements of this kind.
\nSince the fourth century, when Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church part of the State, this institution has accumulated a millennial experience in defending its interests as a great owner. Subsequently, through the Holy Roman Empire (between the beginning of the 9th century and the beginning of the 19th), and then through the Papal States.
\nThe defeat of these states against the republican bloc that led to the unification of Italy reduced their sheer territorial base to the current Vatican. This was added to the fact that many new nations that emerged established the total or partial separation of Church and State. It was then forced to use new tactics and policies and to operate through alliances and agreements with the \u201cearthly powers\u201d. Thus, it spearheaded the bloody subjugation of numerous African nations, for example.
\nDuring a long period of the twentieth century it did so by allying itself with the most reactionary and counter-revolutionary sectors of the imperialist and national bourgeoisies, such as its explicit support for fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany, and Francoism in Spain, where, moreover, the priests were an active part of the counter-revolutionary camp. Something that the Argentine Church repeated, starting in 1976, with the bloody military dictatorship. None of this is secret and is profusely documented.
\nThe outcome and consequences of the Second World War (1939-1945) forced it to make a turnaround. On the one hand, a new U.S. hegemonic imperialism emerged, in a country of Protestant majority and of strict separation between the State and the churches. On the other hand, a world revolutionary ascent was developing with strong manifestations and revolutionary processes in the colonial and semi-colonial countries (such as the independence of Algeria and the Cuban Revolution).
\nIn this context, in 1962 Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council that would end his successor (a kind of \u201csuper-congress\u201d of the Catholic Church) Paul VI, whose final declaration raised the \u201csensitivity to the issues of freedom and human rights\u201d<\/b>.
\nLater, in 1968, Paul VI convoked the Second General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, in Medell\u00edn, Colombia, with the motto \u201cThe Church in the present transformation of Latin America in the light of the Second Vatican Council\u201d. The scenario was not accidental, as since the Cuban Revolution the subcontinent had been one of the epicenters of the masses\u2019 struggles. There the \u201csocial doctrine of the Church\u201d and \u201cthe option for the poor\u201d were established [21]. From there the so-called Liberation Theology was born, as well as numerous social pastorals, of great weight in Brazil.
\nIt was no longer a question of operating from above or of doing charity, but of sending militant detachments of priests and lay people to the heart of the country where the popular rebellions were being born. Beyond the honesty of many of its participants, the truth is that the Church sought to get into these processes to gain space and prestige and thus be in a position to stop them and sterilize them, preventing them from advancing toward the socialist revolution.
\nFrom then on, the Church alternated between \u201d doctrinaire \u201d and \u201d charismatic \u201d Popes, with newcomers to the masses. But this \u201csocial profile\u201d was clearly turning to the right from the end of the 1970s. Polish pope John Paul II was charismatic but profoundly reactionary and anti-communist: he spearheaded the capitalist restoration in the former workers\u2019 states of Eastern Europe, supported Britain in the Falklands War and liquidated Liberation Theology.
\nHis successor, the German Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), with a past in the Nazi youth, was a man of the ecclesiastical apparatus and as much or more reactionary than his predecessor. He resigned in 2013 leaving the Catholic Church in a deep crisis, sprinkled with scandals because of the hiding of numerous pedophile priests, in a total financial disorder and with a significant decline in the influence of the faithful because of the advance of the \u201ctelevised\u201d evangelical churches or of much more aggressive militancy in the neighborhoods and popular zones. The Church ceased to be an alternative to stop and channel struggles and fighters.
\nThe election of the Argentine Jorge Bergoglio, a \u201ccharismatic\u201d, sought to recover that influence and militant spirit. At the same time, although in his country he was always linked to the Peronist right, he had a lot of experience in life and in the action of the Church on sectors of the masses.
\nFor that reason, he adopted a discourse of a progressive appearance. But he does so with many more limitations than the turn that Paul VI took. Of course, he always postulates his personal management to mediate acute confrontations, as he did several times in Venezuela, or with his role in preparing Barack Obama\u2019s visit to Cuba and his interview with Fidel Castro.
\nAfter a previous period of revolutionary processes in the world (Ecuador, Chile, Lebanon, Hong Kong, etc.), the consequences of the pandemic may be gestating new and even stronger uprisings. Some are already manifesting themselves, such as the struggle of the black population of the United States against police killings.
\nThis last speech of the Pope is then at the service of maintaining him as a valid spokesman and mediator. In other words, as an \u201cefficient fireman\u201d to put out the revolutionary fires. As always, at the service of defending the interests of that great enterprise which is the Catholic Church [22].<\/p>\n

\n

Notes:
\n[1] https:\/\/www.cronica.com.ar\/mundo\/Francisco-El-coronavirus-agravo-la-brecha-entre-las-clases-sociales-20200826-0012.html<\/a>
\n[2] https:\/\/www.europapress.es\/sociedad\/noticia-fondos-caridad-desviados-reformas-residencia-bertone-filtraciones-sacerdote-espanol-20151104134644.html<\/a>
\n3] https:\/\/www.efe.com\/efe\/espana\/portada\/inmobiliaria-iglesia-catolica-amparada-por-ley-desde-1946\/10010-3752895<\/a>
\n4] https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/mundo\/noticias\/2013\/09\/130912_cultura_propiedades_millonarias_iglesias_papa_francisco_kv<\/a>
\n[5] https:\/\/www.rtve.es\/noticias\/20180614\/iglesia-catolica-espana-recibe-335-millones-euros-donativos-fieles-cada-ano\/1750780.shtml<\/a>
\n[6] https:\/\/www.dw.com\/es\/de-d%C3%B3nde-viene-el-dinero-de-la-iglesia-cat%C3%B3lica\/a-17170708<\/a>
\n7] https:\/\/tvespanol.net\/especiales\/en-estados-unidos-de-amrica-la-fe-tiene-un-precio<\/a>
\n8] https:\/\/bbl.com.ar\/nota_6034_piden-que-la-iglesia-cat%C3%B3lica-pague-impuestos<\/a>
\n9] https:\/\/www.lavoz.com.ar\/politica\/controversia-por-exenciones-iglesia-catolica<\/a>
\n10] https:\/\/chequeado.com\/el-explicador\/cuanta-plata-le-transfiere-el-gobierno-a-la-iglesia-para-sostener-el-culto-catolico\/<\/a>
\n 
\n11] https:\/\/economia.uol.com.br\/noticias\/redacao\/2019\/12\/10\/igrejas-imposto-imunidade-isencao-tributaria-templos-cultos.htm<\/a>
\n[12] https:\/\/www.dineroenimagen.com\/2016-02-13\/68719<\/a>
\n13] https:\/\/www.lanacion.com.ar\/sociedad\/porsche-capilla-sixtina-nid1736710\/<\/a>
\n14] http:\/\/visnews-es.blogspot.com\/2013\/10\/el-ior-publica-hoy-por-primera-vez-su.html<\/a>
\n15] https:\/\/sannicolasnews.com\/el-oro-de-la-iglesia-catolica-la-mayor-reserva-del-mundo\/<\/a>
\n[16] https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/mundo\/noticias\/2012\/05\/120525_italia_escandalo_detras_banco_vaticano_jrg#:~:text=Banco%20Ambrosiano,-En%201982%2C%20diez&text=El%20Vaticano%20se%20ve%20salpicado,goza%20la%20Ciudad%20del%20Vaticano<\/a>.
\n17] Ditto.
\n18] https:\/\/www.abc.es\/economia\/abci-fondos-ligados-doctrina-catolica-inversiones-como-dios-manda-201910200250_noticia.html?ref=https:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F<\/a>
\n19] https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/notes\/guerrillers-globals\/lista-de-empresas-con-acciones-del-vaticano\/231603913550885\/<\/a>
\n20] https:\/\/operamundi.uol.com.br\/samuel\/36438\/banco-do-vaticano-acionista-da-maior-industria-de-armas-do-mundo<\/a>
\n21] On this subject, see the book De P\u00edo XII a Paulo VI by Virg\u00edlio Caixeta Arraes, at: https:\/\/www12.senado.leg.br\/ril\/edicoes\/42\/165\/ril_v42_n165_p77.pdf<\/a>
\n22] To learn more about the history of the Catholic Church and the election of Jorge Bergoglio as Pope, we recommend reading the articles by Alicia Sagra (\u201cThe Church in History: always at the service of the powerful\u201d) and Ricardo Perrotta (\u201cPope Francis I; a militant Church against the working class and the peoples\u201d) in the magazine Correo Internacional \u2013 Tercera \u00c9poca No 11, Editora Lorca S.A., S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, July 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, the Pope made statements in which he denounced that the coronavirus pandemic aggravated the \u201csocial inequalities\u201d characteristic of the current economy. What is the objective of this denunciation?   By: Alejandro Iturbe. Sept\/05\/2020 Translation: Corriente Obrera Lit-ci U.S. In a speech broadcast from the Vatican, which had worldwide exposure, Jorge Bergoglio said: \u201cThe pandemic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882120,"featured_media":10145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27806,27827],"tags":[28281,27829,30247,30248],"class_list":["post-10144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internacionalinternational","category-theory-history","tag-catholic-church","tag-europe","tag-pope","tag-vatican-city"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t