I assume you&#x27;re getting the $170 billion figure from this article: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.economist.com&#x2F;blogs&#x2F;newsbook&#x2F;2012&#x2F;08&#x2F;catholic-church-america" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.economist.com&#x2F;blogs&#x2F;newsbook&#x2F;2012&#x2F;08&#x2F;catholic-chu...</a><p>I think it&#x27;s worth noting that over $147 billion of that number is spent by Catholic hospitals ($98.6 billion) and universities ($48.8 billion). The number more representative of what most people mean when they refer to &quot;churches&quot; would be Parish disbursements ($11 billion).  $11 billion is nothing to sneeze at, but when you consider that there are about 17.5k parishes in the US (many of which have schools) it&#x27;s a less impressive number.