Their true wealth is a moot point and impossible to find out, but bear in mind that most countries have huge national debts, and the Catholic Church doesn't.

Well, I'm not sure that it's either of those (i.e. moot or impossible to determine), the figures I quoted were not just made up, the point is, the Church is its membership, not its clergy, hierarchy or financial managers, though all of those, assuming they're Catholics, are part of the membership.

The thing most non-Catholics don't realize is that only one collection per YEAR - it's called 'Peter's Pence' - goes to the Vatican to be used as the pope sees fit - and it's the SECOND collection that Sunday, the proceeds from the regular collection staying, as always, in the parish, though there might be some sharing within the diocese at the bishop's discretion.

The idea that the Church is getting rich at the expense of the faithful is ridiculous..