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Pope Francis has often indicated his desire to help the poor and he often criticizes capitalism so it is only fitting that he sell off the church’s incredible assets at a massive yard sale. According to the The Vatican Billions by Avro Manhattan, “The Vatican has billions of shares in the most powerful international corporations such as Gulf Oil, Shell, General Motors, Bethlehem Steel, General Electric, International Business Machines, T.W.A., etc.” Note that it was not billions of dollars but billions of shares!

Moreover, the Church owns several billion dollars’ worth of gold according to the United Nations World Magazine with a large portion of it stored as gold ingots at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank with the remainder stockpiled in Swiss and British banks.

The Vatican is headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church and represents 1.2 billion people in 180 nations of the world. The Vatican is a two-and-a-half square mile complex on the Tiber River in Rome.

The Church’s real estate holdings are enormous in that they own local churches (220,000 worldwide), massive cathedrals (3,300 worldwide), and colleges (1,358 worldwide) along with monasteries and nunneries all over the globe. The Church has been squirrelling away billions of dollars of inheritance from the faithful that have been invested worldwide for hundreds of years .

Apart from the horded gold, thousands of church buildings, thousands of estates, they own thousands of art, books, sculpture, and relics that are impossible to even guess their value.

The Roman Catholic Church’s emphasis upon relics is an embarrassment to sane people. In 1881, The New York Times published an article condemning “the silly worship of relics” and recounted an amusing anecdote of two rival French monasteries that each possessed a head of John the Baptist! The monks, with amazing mental gymnastics, explained this uncomfortable detail by saying that the first skull belonged to John as a man while the smaller skull was from “when he was a boy.” Sure.

I saw one of John’s skulls in a mosque in Damascus although I’m not sure which skull it was! Not sure what Muslims are doing with John’s skull. He sure would pound them for having multiple wives since preaching against King Herod’s adultery with his brother’s wife was what got John beheaded.

One expert whose work was financed by National Geographic said, “There are about eight or nine skulls of John the Baptist out there. He added with a massive understatement, “They can’t be all John the Baptist.” Even this simple Baptist preacher can understand that!

A church in St. Omer boasted of having the lance that pierced His side; some manna that dropped from Heaven to feed the Jews; Aaron’s rod; and the original stone Ten Commandments! Three different churches in France boasted of the complete corpse of Mary Magdalen and five different French churches boasted of the relic of Christ’s circumcision! One cathedral boasts of having some hairs of the Lord’s beard and the left arm of John the Baptist while other monasteries claim to have the right arm. If some enterprising monks got to work, they might be able to put John back together again.

Calvin wrote of His Holy Blood that was “exhibited in more than a hundred places.” That is not only relic worship but blasphemy. But each item would sell at a premium and if they sold everything quickly, they could always “discover” more relics.

In Bethlehem they claim to have a drop of Mary’s milk and a 17th century painting shows a statue of Mary holding baby Jesus as she squirts milk into the mouth of a male worshipper standing below! Great shot!

During the mid-fourth century, Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 315-386) wrote that “already the whole world is filled with fragments of the wood of the Cross.” More than forty shrouds of Jesus exist, so the story goes. Exeter Cathedral displayed parts of the candle that the angel of the Lord used to light the tomb of Jesus and fragments of the bush from which God spoke to Moses! I seem to remember the words of P. T. Barnum that are most appropriate here.

The Roman Catholic Church is the wealthiest corporation in the world. Nothing compares to it yet it was allegedly started by Jesus Christ. So, the former carpenter, turned itinerate preacher, is the source for the wealthiest institution on earth? Doesn’t pass the smell test.

We are expected to believe that Christ lived and died poor and passed on to Peter and future popes the office that permitted them to wear gold embroidered silk robes and possess wealth and treasures unknown and have a mansion with 1100 rooms!

Francis, it’s time to make history, secular and religious, by having the biggest and richest yard sale in history at St. Peter’s Square and at the same time clean out your closets of those relics that are only gathering dust. Sell everything. Christ was the poorest of the poor and your church is the richest of the rich. Get poor again and gain a little credibility. On with the yard sale! I’ll see you in St. Peter’s Square.

Next, I hope to attend a yard sale sponsored by some of the super-rich television evangelists with the proceeds going to poor non-Catholics. Get ready Benny, Trinity, Morris, Kenneth, Creflo, Joel, and Paula.

I’ll not hold my breath since I don’t look good in blue and I don’t trust the televangelists any more than I trust Francis!

(Boys’ new book, The God Haters, will be published in hardback on Oct. 21 by Barbwire Books and on Amazon.com as an eBook.)

The God Haters Angry Atheists, Shallow Scholars, Silly Scientists, Pagan Preachers & Embattled Evolutionists Declare War Against Christians by Don Boys, Ph.D. Angry Atheists, Shallow Scholars, Silly Scientists, Pagan Preachers, and Embattled Evolutionists are, of necessity, attacking the Bible for if they can denounce, deny, distort, and denigrate it, they will win more converts to atheism. They have been waging this war for a few years and most of us have ignored their books, television interviews, and university debates because they have just been more of the typical dog and pony shows that the most fanatical God haters have created for centuries. They want a fight, and while I consider atheists to be unimpressive fools, I’m willing to take them on. No quarter asked or given. Purchase Now from Amazon