You guys are ignoring the great service that The Pope provides: his presence, and the ritual surrounding him provide spiritual comfort to literally millions of people who might otherwise be wracked with existential anxiety. Is that service worth a golden throne at $15 billion USD? I don't know, but in your haste to condemn all religion unilaterally, you are glossing over what good it does.

I have family members who were religious and lived longer, happier lives because of their faith, and I had other family members who were resolute skeptics, deniers of religions and lovers of science who, in their last years, suffered terrible existential dread and end-of-life anxiety.

Blessings

~ND