Accumulation and misuse of religious property

The possession of land, investments, and other assets by the Church may involve its administration along similar lines to that of a commercial enterprise. Much Church property is provided by donation and it therefore seems exploitative and corrupt that it should be used on any other basis than for social need and welfare. Donation to Church funds may contribute to persistent poverty, since some of the most ardent benefactors are the poor and uneducated.

The question of possession of property has caused religious schism since the Reformation.

Tenants have been evicted from Church owned housing for not paying rents, despite poverty and with no provision of alternative accommodation.

1. An error of modernism identified by the belief that: The Church has no innate and legitimate right of acquiring and possessing property. (Papal Allocution, Nunquam Fore, 15 December, 1856; Encyclical Incredibili, 7 September 1863).

1. Religious and political antagonism
2. Misuse of resources in religion
3. Accumulation of property

1. Religious schism
2. Anti-clericalism

1. Confiscation of religious property

1. Corruption in organized religion

1. Nonreligious
2. Accumulation [D]
3. Abuse
4. Accumulation [C]