During at least its first millennium,
Christianity—with the notable exception of Clement of Alexandria—held that
greed is tightly coupled to profit-seeking and wealth. Amid the increased
trade, and profits, during the Commercial Revolution in the Middle Age in
Europe, Aquinas began the trend severing the coupling to allow for greedless moderate
profits, and thus wealth. Also in Medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic
Church allowed monasteries to have collective wealth (including land)
without being subject to having to go through the eye of a needle to enter the
Kingdom of God.[1]
With it supply of gold and real estate, the Vatican could be considered rich in
the twenty-first century. When the exemption for collective wealth justifies those
holdings from the stain of greed is one question; here I look at reports in
2024 that the Vatican was on the brink of bankruptcy, and why, for at
least in one media report, one major reason is curiously left out even though
that reason may have been making all the difference, and may even be considered
just, whether in terms of divine or human justice.
1. See my books, Godliness and Greed, and God’s Gold, the latter text reflecting my further thought on the topic, especially on how Christianity can be held off from the increasing susceptibility to greed theologically.
