"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, that for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew xix, 24)-Try telling the pope. An article in yesterday's Guardian reveals that the Vatican owns property in some of London's most expensive districts, not to mention blocks of flats in Paris and Switzerland. Read on:-"Behind a disguised offshore company structure, the church's international portfolio has been built up over the years, using cash originally handed over by Mussolini in return for papal recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929. The surprising aspect for some will be the lengths to which the Vatican has gone to preserve secrecy about the Mussolini millions."
 
The "nest-egg" is now worth over £500 m, and as recently as 2006 the Vatican spent £15 m buying 30 St James's Square. The last paragraph of this very detailed investigation reads:-"The Guardian asked the Vatican's representative in London, the papal nuncio, archbishop Antonio Mennini, why the papacy continued with such secrecy over the identity of its property investments in London. We also asked what the pope spent the income on. True to its tradition of silence on the subject, the Roman Catholic church's spokesman said that the nuncio had no comment."-In my own lifetime, from its complicity in the Holocaust through to its cover-up of horrendous and persistent child abuse ... a cover-up in which Herr Ratzinger is believed to have played a role himself ... the Catholic Church has proved time and again that organized religion remains as corrupt as any other human institution. What distinguishes it from the rest, however, is its holy hypocrisy. And yet millions turn out to cheer the pope as he parades himself in his fancy clothes, and when he dies, millions will wait to hear who is the next infallible spokesman for the Christian god. If that god exists, he must be squirming.-******-Just read the piece about Father Flannery. Thanks for this, George. It makes you wonder why Father Flannery bothers with the Catholic church at all. And the pope warns against the dangers of intolerant agnosticism!


> Here's at least one catholic priest who is open-minded
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/world/europe/priest-is-planning-to-defy-vaticans-orde... 
> But of course he can't be allowed to express his views!-At least he hasn't abused children