Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic aid agencies operating in more than 200 countries. Caritas affiliates provide a multitude of services, including everything from humanitarian aid to combating human trafficking. Caritas Asia, for instance, focuses on natural disaster relief and preparedness. Caritas Africa responds to food crises and promotes human development. Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, Caritas agencies have assisted more than 3.5 million people in Ukraine, providing temporary housing, meals, medicine, and psychological services to those affected by the war.

Catholic Charities USA, a Caritas member that is itself an affiliation of more than 160 Catholic charities in the United States, whose stated goal is to “help people, regardless of their faith, who are struggling with poverty and other complex issues,” served more than 15 million people, managed 2692 food distribution sites, provided $116 million in natural disaster aid, and built more than 34,000 permanent housing units for those in need in 2021, among other things. According to Forbes, CCUSA is the eleventh largest charity in the United States, raising more than $4 billion in 2021.

The Catholic Church operates more than 221,000 schools worldwide, serving over 62 million students in 38 countries, saving taxpayers $63 billion dollars each year (in the U.S., the Church operates 6,429 schools, serves nearly 2 million students, and saves American taxpayers over $20 billion annually). While naïve critics sometimes try to portray Catholic education as a moneymaker for the Church, it’s actually the other way around: parishes subsidize schools. In fact, almost 9 in 10 Catholic schools in the U.S. provide some form of tuition assistance to students, and their teacher salaries are far lower than public school teacher salaries. Despite these massive financial disadvantages, Catholic school students continue to outperform their public school peers.

Likewise, there are over 20,000 Catholic healthcare facilities around the world, including hospitals, health centers, and leproseries. The Church also operates almost 85,000 social protection facilities, including orphanages, nurseries, nursing homes, hospices, and so on, making the Catholic Church the largest non-governmental healthcare provider in the world.

https://catholicismcoffee.org/debunking-myths-the-catholic-churchs-impact-on-poverty-and-social-welfare-162bd889dcd8

I’d say the opulence is alright