The often repeated mantra by opponents of the Church is “Sell the Vatican, feed the world!” They propose that by selling the cultural heritage of 2,000 years of Western Culture, such as sacred art and architecture, and using the proceeds for the poor that world hunger would be eliminated.
There are many problems with this proposal, but rather than addressing each of them - I have an alternate solution.
There is this perception that the Church is unbelievably rich and floating on a sea of gold and jewels. But the facts are that despite being far and away the world's largest charitable organization, the Vatican’s yearly operating budget is estimated to be between $270-$300 million dollars. That’s certainly a lot of money, but it pales in comparison to what it yields in the form of charitable activity. The Church uses its money to feed the hungry, care for the sick, bury the dead, educate poor children, and give shelter to the homeless. Plus, if you sold the Vatican, and dispersed all the money, it wouldn’t solve the problem of world hunger, only instead eliminate the capacity of the world’s largest charity to fight it. Selling the Vatican is not a good idea, and it wouldn’t even work.
In comparison, let’s look at the porn industry. According to various reports, the porn industry in the USA alone generates $10-12 Billion Dollars annually. That’s a staggering 40X larger than the Vatican’s yearly budget. The revenue of the porn industry is enough to feed 4.8 billion people a day. Sell the porn industry, feed the world! That makes so much more sense.
Additionally, unlike the Vatican, the porn industry does not make mankind better. In fact, it only spreads misery, broken marriages, distorted views of women, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual dysfunction, human trafficking and other awful consequences.
Of the two, there is no question which generates more money, which harms society and which serves humanity.
Millions of men and women struggle with compulsive pornography use. It is estimated that 40% of men and 20% of women are addicted to it. This can include visual porn, chat rooms, erotic stories, and social media. While few are willing to talk about it, this is an epidemic that we need to begin facing now!
