[Dr. Thorne]

There remain some nice buildings and art

Oh, there's a little more than that. Your downplaying of church ownership of land worldwide (not just the land on which churches sit) is disingenuous. Vatican art works alone are priceless.

BTW, I'm a saint too. Paul the Apostle said so. 1 Cor 6:2, Eph 2:19

[Steve_Seattle]

"Your downplaying of church ownership of land worldwide (not just the land on which churches sit) is disingenuous."

The "Catholic Church" as such does not own most of that land; it is owned by individual dioceses and religious orders, which are independent corporate entities. Much of it consists of churches and schools and colleges and hospitals. Shut down the schools, dump those kids in the public schools, and taxes go up. Shut down the hospitals and - again - taxes go up or health services are not provided.

[SamuraiScot]

church ownership of land worldwide (not just the land on which churches sit) is disingenuous

It's not disingenuous. It's that the assets, even if they were on the scale of Soros's assets, would be insignificant in addressing poverty, which is, as a classic black entrepreneur and motivational speaker wrote, "a disease of the mind."

What's disingenuous is people who know better proposing that the Vatican be dispossessed, à la Henry VIII, as a real-world solution to anything. It seems to have more to do with envy (which is not a virtue) than with a charitable result.