Topic(s): Church, Denominationalism

Todd Clippard

It is never our intent to offend anyone with anything that appears in House to House / Heart to Heart, and certainly such was not the intent in Volume 10 Number 1 and the statement concerning the Catholic Church being a business. I would like to address a couple of items in your email including the statement concerning the Catholic Church.

First, the Catholic Church is not a religion founded by Jesus. When one compares the New Testament, and in particular the book of Acts and the epistles to the churches, he will not see any resemblance to the church in the New Testament and the Catholic Church. There is no resemblance between the two in regard to organization, worship, doctrine, means of salvation, etc.

Second, you claim the Catholic Church "survives solely on donations from parishioners and anyone who wishes to donate." This could not be further from the truth. The Catholic church raises money through gambling, business and financial transactions, and other means. In light of the Boston diocese priest sex scandals, and the more than $100 million that would be paid out in settlements (a.k.a. "hush money"), it was reported that the Boston diocese alone has commercial holdings worth more than $1.3 billion which produce an annual income of $160 million for the diocese.

At one time the Vatican raised money through the selling of licenses to sin, called indulgences in the 17th century. Vatican City's St. Peter's Basilica was built with funds obtained through the sale of indulgences. In recent years, in the pope's Papal Bull for the Millennium, the groundwork for the sale of indulgences was re-introduced. Additionally, the Catholic Church is reported to hold hundreds of millions of dollars in gold obtained through the Nazi's prior to WWII. It is a matter of fact the Vatican profited greatly through the plundering of the Jews under Nazi oppression.

Reported income for the Vatican City in 2003 was over $350 million. Free will offerings from Catholic parishioners only totaled $78 million. In the last 40 years, the Vatican has paid out over $840 million in claims against the church for sexual abuse among the priesthood. In actual dollars today, that number would be in the billions of dollars.

We do not condone the sale of merchandise by any religious body as a means to fund the work of the church. Churches of Christ do not practice this in any way. We are not land barons or business tycoons. We operate under the only Divinely-approved means of raising funds, the free-will offerings of our members (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)