bahmer wrote:
And I suppose that the Vatican Bank only has a $1.98 in it unlike all of those protestant ministers having millions right. And that is all donated to charity and nothing else.
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Of course the Vatican has a bank. The Vatican is an independent country. It has its sovereign rights. That is why countries like the US send Ambassadors to the Vatican.God deserves all the glory in the Vatican, praises, as His Tabernacle was originally laced with gold.
Adams, Andrew
The gold used in the tabernacle was its most precious ornamentation. As far as the structure of the building proper (not the court or the external items of furniture), this precious metal was seen in almost all the items presented to us therein. Look at each significant item and the meaning of the gold in relation to each. It will be important for us to remember that this tabernacle has its pattern in the heavens, for the Lord showed Moses in the mount something that already existed (Exo 25:9 and 25:40) and the writer of the Hebrews tells us the same message when he writes of “the patterns of things in the heavens” (Heb 9:23).
Here is the history of Vatican.
The Vatican City has its own telephone system, post office, gardens, astronomical observatory, radio station, banking system, and pharmacy, as well as a contingent of Swiss Guards responsible for the personal safety of the pope since 1506.
Almost all supplies—including food, water, electricity, and gas—must be imported. There is no income tax and no restriction on the import or export of funds. As the Holy See, it derives its income from the voluntary contributions of more than one billion Roman Catholics worldwide, as well as interest on investments and the sale of stamps, coins, and publications. Banking operations and expenditures have been reported publicly since the early 1980s.
The period from the 4th century to 1870, the Vatican gained control of territory around Rome and served as capital of the Papal States. In 1929 Vatican City’s independent sovereignty was recognized by the Fascist Italian government in the Lateran Treaty. Sovereignty is exercised by the pope upon his election as the head of the Roman Catholic It has absolute executive, legislative, and judicial powers within the city. In 1984 a major reshuffle of offices in the Roman Curia resulted in the delegation of the routine administration of Vatican City to a pontifically appointed commission of five cardinals headed by the Secretariat of State. The inhabitants of Vatican City, the majority of whom are priests and nuns, also include several hundred laypersons engaged in secretarial, domestic, trade, and service occupations.
Special extraterritorial privileges are extended to more than 10 other buildings in Rome and to Castel Gandolfo, the pope’s summer residence in the Alban Hills. In addition, Vatican City maintains embassies in numerous foreign nations.
Vatican cultural life has much declined since the Renaissance, when the popes were among Italy’s foremost patrons of the arts. The Vatican Museums and Galleries, the frescoes by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, the frescoes by Pinturicchio in the Borgia Apartment, and Raphael’s Stanze (“Rooms”) nevertheless attract critics, artists, and flocks of tourists from throughout the world. Years of restoration work on the Sistine Chapel frescoes were completed in 1994, making it possible to view Michelangelo’s work in full vibrant colors. In 2000 the millennial Jubilee focused world attention on Vatican City.
The Vatican Apostolic Library contains a priceless collection of some 150,000 manuscripts and 1.6 million printed books, many from pre-Christian and early Christian times. The Vatican publishes its own influential daily newspaper, Observatory Romano, and its press can print books and pamphlets in any of 30 languages, from old Ecclesiastical Georgian to Indian Tamil. Since 1983 the Vatican has produced its own television programming. Its radio broadcasts are heard in some 40 languages in many parts of the world. Vatican City was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984.
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