Political scientist Carsten Frerk estimates the German church's net wealth is around $104 billion. That, he says, gives it the political power to snuff out efforts to change the tax relationship with the state. It's a position shared by the country's second-largest Christian entity, the Evangelical Church in Germany, whose tax revenues were around $6 billion in 2011. "We have the very extraordinary situation in Germany that the Catholic and Lutheran churches are equally strong. They are strong enough to be able to say to the parties, if you even think of making any changes, we will strike back now... I think that the relation of state and church won't change at all," Frerk says. Archbishop Robert Zolltisch, the head of the German Bishops' Conference, told NPR: "In Germany, the church is a community of faith which coexists alongside the legal system... The two cannot be separated."
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Bishop of Bling: So why is Germany's Roman Catholic Church so wealthy?
The pope's decision to suspend Gemany 'bishop of bling' is drawing scrutiny to the Catholic Church's wealth in Germany. Here's a closer look at why Germany's Catholic Church is one of the wealthiest branches in the world.
