"The Wisdom of Judas Iscariot"

Notwithstanding my criticism of the tone of one of Mark's posts yesterday, I am usually in general agreement with him. And Mark's description of those who decry the alleged "wealth" of the Catholic Church is dead on accurate:

... I've never quite gotten the whole "The Catholic Church is rolling in dough" thing. Where exactly? Every parish I know is always scrambling to pay the light bill. From all I can tell, the Church operates on a shoestring.

Dorothy Day, not exactly a friend of the GOP fatcat type thought one of the dumbest things her fellow lefties wanted to do was demand that the Church "sell off her treasures" because churches were one of the only places that the poor could experience beauty. All that plan would result in would be a modest boost in revenue that would almost instantly evaporate (what with the Church being the largest charitable institution on the face of the earth) and the world greatest art would hencefort and forever be the inaccessible property of a few rich people. The whole "Why were these things not sold?" deal is the wisdom of Judas Iscariot. It's most often heard in the countries, like the US and Canada, that have vast sums of wealth dwarfing the rest of the world. It's the complaint of greedy people.

If the Church were to "sell off her treasures", things like this would be impossible.