I'll quote Mary, too:

These nuns and brothers and priests who did the abusing were in more or less poverty themseleves, the nuns at least taking a vow of poverty.

In many nations, young men and women were forced into the convent or the priesthood by a number of factors - economic, social, and familial. When I was in the seminary in Milwaukee, we had a number of students from the Philippines. Some didn't want to be there, but it would bring shame upon their families if they left. One went berserk, and got a pistol and threatened to commit suicide.

Vatican II largely brought an end to that, and I think most modern priests and nuns chose their vocation by free choice.

I'm sure this will get all sorts of people mad at me all over gain, but I think the wealth of the Catholic Church is largely a myth. Somebody above suggested that the Vatican could sell off some art works and raise cash, but I wonder about that. Those artifacts are available for public viewing at the Vatican now- would it be better for them to be in private collections? And yes, the Catholic Church owns many gorgeous church buildings that are open to the public and are very expensive to maintain - would it be better for those building to be razed and the real estate sold? The Vatican does have a very large stock portfolio (compensation from Italy for loss of the Papal States) that serves as an endowment for the operation of the Vatican, but it still needs contributions from Catholics to supplement the endowment income.

-Joe-