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The Catholic church is an incredibly wealthy institution and while a lot of that money is used to ostensibly do good through the world (feed the poor, help fund medical care for those who do not have it, etc) a lot of it is used to purchase ornate and somewhat unnecessary pretty things for the church. I remember standing in st pauls cathedral and thinking, "damn there are a lot of people starving and sleeping on the street through out the world and the catholic church has all these solid gold popes." It was a bit depressing.
In addition i think that the church has, to a certain extent, exploited laws in an effort for financial gain (or at least to avoid financial misfortune). The most obvious example is that in US law churches are not forced to liquidate assets in order to pay bills. Churches that owe millions of dollars in settlements to cases where priests sexually abused children will not pay off these debts because they lack liquid capital -- never mind that the boston diosy alone owns an ISLAND. The law was instituted to avoid parishioners suddenly having no place to worship and i think this is blatant misuse of the law and frankly incredibly insulting to those who suffered under this church sanctioned and covered up abuse.
All of this would be unsurprising and hardly even worth discussing if the church were a corporation -- but I think as a society we should expect more from an institution that preaches humbleness and claims to hold the ear of god.
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