Good grief -- I honestly had no idea!

[theHandpuppet]

17. My eyeballs have popped out so far now they're knockin' my nose...

Like I said, I really had no idea. Another recent article...

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=1a685537-b674-462d-9189-21772d2f4be4
US Catholic Church a $170 billion business
Among Pope Francis' challenges will be oversight of the sprawling, lucrative -- but embattled -- American organization.
By Bruce Kennedy Mar 14, 2013 1:05PM

It's a new era for the Roman Catholic Church as it welcomes its first non-European pope of the modern age.

Many Catholics are watching closely to see which direction Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, of Argentina, will take their church. Along with becoming the spiritual leader of the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, he's also assuming the leadership of one of the globe's largest businesses.

The church does not release financial data, but a lengthy report by The Economist last year said annual spending by the Vatican and church-owned entities in the U.S. alone was about $170 billion in 2010. While there are no hard data about the U.S. Catholic Church's annual revenue, Slate puts those spending numbers into some perspective -- noting that in fiscal 2012 Apple (AAPL +0.52%) had $157 billion in revenue and that only 16 companies have more than $170 billion in revenue....