As far as the Vatican goes -- I was there last week (4 days, on business), and yeah, there are some nice and pretty things. But since I walked through a few parking lots on my way to the library, I also made it a point to check the make and model of the Vatican City-registered cars (="staff cars"). The Catholic church may have some glorious bits of wealth, but the rank-and-file priests and religious who are on the "shepherd side" of the catholic church are by and large not swimming in cash. Once you get to the higher levels of power, things may be different, but I doubt it.
On the other hand Boccaccio, in his Decameron (first came out around 1353) tells the story of a couple of virtuous businessmen in Paris: one Christian and one Jew. They were the best of friends, and shared in nearly everything they did. Of course, the Christian would try from time to time to convince the Jew to convert to Christianity. Finally, the Jewish merchant went to his friend, and said, "Alright, I've thought a lot about what you've said, and I'm willing to consider conversion. But first, let me go to Rome and see how well your religion is led."
At this the Christian merchant despaired greatly, for he knew that if the merchant went to Rome [I know, I know, the papal court was in Avignon at the time Boccaccio wrote], he would see what wicked and vice-ridden lives the pope and the prelates led, and all the Christian's hopes for his friend's conversion would be lost. So he tried and tried to dissuade him from going. But the Jewish merchant would have none of it, and insisted. To the great dismay of the Christian, the Jew went to Rome. The devout catholic knew that his friend would stay forever in the beliefs of his fathers.
When the Jew came back, he went straight to his friend and said, "okay, I've decided. Let's get me baptized straight away."
The Christian was dumbfounded: "But didn't you see the pope and the cardinals, and all their entourage, and what gluttonous, luxurious sinful lives they had?"
The Jew replied "I did" [and at this point, Boccaccio becomes his most poetic, with a full description of male and female prostitutes, drunkenness, gambling, gluttony, and every other vice known to man, blown way out of proportion in what the Italian poet Petrarch, writing at the same time, called "the New Babylon"].
The Christian asked "But why do you want to convert then?"
The Jew replied, "Well, I saw the Church is so poorly governed by these scoundrels, who do everything in the power to diminish the Church's authority and destroy its presence on Earth, and yet everywhere you look, the numbers of Christians aren't decreasing, but rather increasing, I decided that there can be no human explanation for this popularity: God alone can explain its spread."
