Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church is Trinitarian and defines its mission as spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments, and exercising charity. [From wikipedia]

LD$ Inc.
The church has 3 missions.
Proclaim the Gospel, Perfect the Saints, Redeem the Dead.
LDS believes in Great Great Grandaddy Gods and their no name spiritual Wives responsible for providing spirits to the entire human race.

TSCC is a real estate business with multiple for-profit companies that are masquerading behind a non-profit church. Receives about $7 billion in tithing which is presumed to be laundered across the empire and mixed with the for-profit legal entities. Financial books are closed to outside auditors so we can't tell for sure other than TSCC says once the money is donated that can do whatever is needed with it.


Both churches have public influence and receive donations.

LD$ Inc. from inception seems to be one big racketeering group collecting tithes, letting bishops, stake presidents, patriarchs earn money from the tithes collected and blessings given in the early days of the church. The only change now is that top leaders receive a "modest" stipend for their full-time services. Local leaders are not paid.

Pope probably receives a "modest" stipend as well. I don't if Cardinals or priests are paid in some way.


The Roman Catholic Church appears to be more Charitable because their donation ratio is higher than LD$ Inc annually.

However, both have real estate, both need donations, and both say they are a church.

Which one is more legitimate in there Church causes and which one is clearly a business using "church" as the product?

Example of some extraordinary behavior from the current Pope.

Pope Francis Raffles His Espresso Machine and Shoes to Help Poor
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/pope-francis-raffles-his-expresso-machine-shoes-help-poor-1476006

I don't know if there was anytime that Monson has personally made an announcement of how the church was going to donate more to the poor. In fact, you don't hear much from Monson at all....about anything going on with the church.

I can hear the FPR now: Eyring conviced Francis to give up coffee.

Pope Francis to build showers for homeless in St. Peter’s Square

VATICAN CITY (RNS) In his latest bid to ease the suffering of the poor — and upend the expectations of the papacy — Pope Francis plans to build showers for the homeless under the sweeping white colonnade of St. Peter’s Square.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/11/13/pope-francis-build-showers-homeless-st-peters-square/

Would Tommy do the same at Salt Lake City's Temple Square???

Should Pope Francis challenge him on it, since the momos still claims to be "the only one true church" on the face of the whole earth!!!

By the way, I believed the Catholic Church buys real states to build Churches and Monasteries, and also to build houses for young mothers and abused women. They also build clinics to help the sick!

For me, I just have a very hard time comparing between the two organizations!

Phazer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Roman Catholic Church appears to be more
> Charitable because their donation ratio is higher
> than LD$ Inc annually.

Being the taller of two dwarfs is still awfully short.

> Which one is more legitimate in there Church
> causes and which one is clearly a business using
> "church" as the product?

Both are businesses. Both hoard billions. Both guilt followers into believing and staying. Both own massive amounts of real estate and corporations.

Neither is "legitimate."

p.s. the current pope seems to be a decent guy. That doesn't make up for 1700+ years of robbery, guilt, war, murder, torture, and demanding ignorance from the organization he currently heads.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2014 03:36PM by ificouldhietokolob.

Catholic priests (unlike nuns and monks) do NOT take a vow of poverty. Priests do receive a salary.

Priests can be wealthy and upon taking their vows may choose to keep their personal wealth.

The Pope, cardinals and bishops are all priests.

That is only partially correct. There are two types of priests, diocesan (or parish) priests, and priests affiliated with religious orders. Priests affiliated with religious orders (i.e. the Jesuits, Franciscans, etc.) can and do take vows of poverty. Pope Francis is a Jesuit priest.

I would imagine that wealthy priests are the outliers. Catholics simply do not donate enough money to their church to support the religious in a lavish lifestyle. The average Christian church donation in the U.S. is 2-3% of income, and Catholics come in on the low end of the average.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2014 06:44PM by summer.

summer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That is only partially correct. There are two
> types of priests, diocesan (or parish) priests,
> and priests affiliated with religious orders.
> Priests affiliated with religious orders (i.e. the
> Jesuits, Franciscans, etc.) can and do take vows
> of poverty. Pope Francis is a Jesuit priest.

Part of Jesuit "orders:"
Rule 13 of Ignatius's Rules for Thinking with the Church said: "That we may be altogether of the same mind and in conformity ... if [the Holy See of the Universal Church (Roman Catholic Church)] shall have defined anything to be black which to our eyes appears to be white, we ought in like manner to pronounce it to be black."

Sounds a lot like, "When the prophet has spoken, the thinking is done."

Jesuits do take it as a special mission of theirs to support the pope. Must be especially easy for them this time around. :) Having said that, they also place a huge emphasis on education and learning. They are considered to be the intellectuals of the Catholic church. And you know what learning does to people. It leads to independent thought!

In my community we saw a house for sale that we thought we might be interested in as it was a very beautiful large home with a pool, spa and all the amenities were upgraded. In talking with the listing realtor about the price, she said it was owned by a Catholic priest from the LA area and that he was not interested in compromising on his price as it was a property he bought for investment purposes.

Yes...both have money, properties of all kinds, and power.

I think their internal focus has been historically somewhat different (although different by degree, not by kind).

The Catholic Church has always focused on power, first and foremost. Allied with this, has always been the enthusiastic acquisition of properties and money, and in as large quantities as could be obtained...but I think that they self-identify as power brokers on the levels of "King of the Known World," and "Equal, or More Than Equal, to Any Other Head of State, or Groups of States, on Earth." I think the Catholic Church is fairly comfortable with their longevity; they've been doing this for almost two thousand years, and I think they figure they can probably get another thousand or so out of it before there is any kind of real collapse.

The LDS Church enthusiastically and aggressively likes power too, and will take as much as they can acquire (which is mostly on a pretty small level, given that they don't operate as global power brokers)...but the LDS focus is properties and money. I do think that the men at the top of LDS Corp think about the final dividing up, and are---individually and collectively---pretty focused on how they can get a piece of that...and just how large that piece will be.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2014 03:52PM by tevai.

Well the key difference is size and complexity. The catholic church is pretty much everything mormonism aspires to become but have failed at. BYU tried his best at theocracy in Utah, but ultimately mormonism failed at maintaining secular power. The pope on the other hand pretty much dictated european politics throughout the middle ages and beyond.

The mormon church has BYU in it's pocket. A mall and some corporations and investments in real estate in it's grip. The catholic church runs countless buisnesses, schools, monestaries, hospitals, charities and god knows what else. Mormonism has morning "seminary" while the catholic church pretty much invented the university as a concept.

You can go on and on about the similarities. The punchline in every case though remains the same. Catholicism was a major player in the creation of the modern world, mormonism remains as a footnote in the margin.

Yes, and the same racket too. Catholics have superior presentation skills. Mormons are better at member exploitation.

A family member of more mine is almost a priest. Not only will he bank around $70K/year, but all of his expenses (living, med, vacations, food, etc) will be paid by the church. He also can keep any gifts given to him. I think its great he will be taken care of, but it kind of makes me uncomfortable too. My husband has a pretty good job, but with a family its hard to bank $70K. It's hard to think he will be counseling others while not married and sitting on cash.

Could you verify that 70K figure?

Not all diocese pay the same. The figure varies by area.

I don't know where you are located but 70k is more than double what most parish priests make.

Catholic diocese all handle things a bit differently but here in Chicago it is more like 30k with healthcare and a free place to live. A priest is responsible for food, car and vacations (unless it is a religious retreat).

There are priests who have outside income... writing, teaching, as doctors or lawyers.

It seems to reflect the cost of living in the area. I wonder how much priests receive in Singapore, the world's most expensive city.

I'm a lurker, raised (and somewhat practicing) Catholic, nevermo who visited Utah for the national parks and have been trying to understand Mormonism ever since I stopped in Salt Lake. (First post.)

Temple Square didn't draw me toward Mormonism but it did make me question Catholicism somewhat and religion writ large.

I'd say LDS' level of organization and discipline makes some in the Catholic hierarchy blush. It's like a management consultant figured out how to do religion and control better.

I'd also say for Catholics, free will is an important concept in what you do, when you attend, how much you give, and that freedom is missing from LDS.

Good observations, Eastcoasthiker. I agree with you.

My two granddaughters attend school in the Bay area and many of the public schools aren't very good. The oldest granddaughter is about to enter high school and to get in a good school its vey similar to an application to a very competitive college, i.e. testing (very similar to SAT's), a series of visits, interviews at various levels, recommendation letters, etc. Well, as it turns out many of the various best high schools in the area tend to be Catholic - so the indoctrination starts very early, it's much earlier than at the collegiate level.

Here 's a bit more information and explaination on the earnings of a Catholic priest.

http://www.catholicdigest.com/articles/faith/knowledge/2007/10-01/how-much-money-does-a-parish-priest-make