AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
February 12, 2018
By Emily Bourke
There are calls for the Catholic Church’s tax-free status to be reviewed after a Fairfax investigation revealing the extent of property, assets and investments owned by the church in Australia.
Fairfax’s six-month investigation found the Catholic Church was worth more than $9 billion in Victoria alone.
The investigation extrapolated that figure to estimate the church’s national wealth at $30 billion.
The Age’s journalists obtained property valuations from dozens of Victorian councils.
They found 1,800 church-owned properties, including churches, presbyteries, schools, nursing homes, hospitals, offices, tennis courts and even mobile phone towers.
But beyond real estate, there was superannuation, telecommunications, Catholic Church Insurance and Catholic Development Funds, which serve as an internal treasury.
Catholics for Renewal’s Peter Johnstone, a corporate governance consultant, said most Catholics would have no idea about the extent of the church’s assets.
“Certainly there’s been no public record available to Catholics,” he said.
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