From Wikipedia:
Religious organization’s wealth
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
$67.0 B (alleged to be as much as 100.0 billion) - Catholic Church Germany $25.0B
- Catholic Church Australia $30B
- Church of England $7.8B
- Opus Dei (part of the Catholic Church) $2.8B Italy
- Church of Scientology $2.0B
- Catholic Church Vatican – Unknown – Vatican City (some estimates are about $15B in investment holdings)
How does poverty persist
In a world where religious leaders advocate charity
And religious institutions hold billions in wealth
How is the glory of God to be served?
Lifting the unfortunate with opportunity and investment,
Bringing clean water to every soul,
Eradicating disease like malaria and AIDS,
Establishing stable energy for those that would welcome the light,
Or maybe they should just continue to build ever greater monuments of wealth?
And the collection of donations, tithes and zakat (Islamic version of tithe) continue and the wealth builds tax free.
What do they spend on charity services? What do they define as charity services? There is no way of knowing, but the wealth accumulation relative to the problems of the world certainly suggests that religious institutions are better at building wealth than helping the poor and less fortunate. Transparency of non-religious charities are such that they are rated for how much of donations find their way to the targeted needy. However, church institutions seem dramatically less transparent. But opulence seems to be a common feature at the top of the institutional pyramid.