# How much of the Vatican could the Pope sell? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 24, 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-the-vatican-could-the-pope-sell/672070 "2013-10-24T00:31:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-the-vatican-could-the-pope-sell/672070/1 "2013-10-24T00:31:39Z")
Inspired by [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duL6LNUUA3k) story, a bishop gets his knuckles rapped for living too ostentatiously. The story says of Pope Francis I; > [@](#): > > But of all the popes, Francis was least likely to be sympathetic. > > At the centre of his message has been the need for the Church to connect to the poor and the deprived. Francis has criticised clerics who live too lavishly. He has told them not to live “like princes”, and he has himself chosen to stay in a Vatican guest house rather than move into the very much grander papal apartment. Anyway, if the Pope took this to its logical conclusion and in accordance with Matthew 19:21 wanted to sell off all of the Vatican’s priceless treasures to private bidders and give the cash to diseased orphans, would anyone (the Curia, Italian authorities?) stop him? How much would he be able to raise? I imagine the Sistine Chapel would be worth a few bucks. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-the-vatican-could-the-pope-sell/672070/2 "2013-10-24T00:39:00Z")
Didn’t we do this before? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-the-vatican-could-the-pope-sell/672070/3 "2013-10-24T00:43:50Z")
> [@Charredcasm](#): > > Didn’t we do this before? If we did I couldn’t find it, did find threads on what happens if the Pope goes snooker-loopy and [how His Holiness can be removed from office](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=556177), but that’s not really what I’m asking. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-the-vatican-could-the-pope-sell/672070/4 "2013-10-24T00:52:59Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > The story says of Pope Francis I; Nitpick: he is Pope Francis, not Francis I. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-the-vatican-could-the-pope-sell/672070/5 "2013-10-25T19:09:04Z")
As I recall reading on a Catholic Q&A website many years ago, which I can’t find right now: the key point is that the Vatican’s holy relics, priceless artworks, historical artifacts, architecture and so forth are definitely not considered to be the property of the Pope. Rather, they are considered to be held in trust, for the members of the Catholic Church, by the Church leadership. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-of-the-vatican-could-the-pope-sell/672070/6 "2013-10-25T21:41:26Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > If we did I couldn’t find it, did find threads on what happens if the Pope goes snooker-loopy and [how His Holiness can be removed from office](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=556177), but that’s not really what I’m asking. > [@ITR\_champion](#): > > As I recall reading on a Catholic Q&A website many years ago, which I can’t find right now: the key point is that the Vatican’s holy relics, priceless artworks, historical artifacts, architecture and so forth are definitely not considered to be the property of the Pope. Rather, they are considered to be held in trust, for the members of the Catholic Church, by the Church leadership. Actually, I think how to deal with a pope that has gone (or is deemed to have gone) insane is highly relevant to the question. I am most emphatically not an expert (I am atheist and have never had much exposure to catholicism), but it is my understanding he is an absolute monarch in both the spiritual and the temporal sense. So, notwithstanding any “trust”, given his absolute power he could still decree that they be sold. Of course, that decree might carry a significant risk to his health and the subsequent pope could revoke the decree for anything that hadn’t been sold.