Catholic Tax! German Catholics lose rights

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
9/25/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

German Catholics have left their churches following priest sex scandals

If they fail to pay a special tax, Germany's Roman Catholics will be denied the right to Holy Communion or a religious burial. A German bishops' decree has just come into force says that anyone failing to pay the tax, which is an extra eight percent of their income tax bill - they will no longer be considered a Catholic.

While Catholics make up around 30 percent of Germany's population, the number of the former faithful leaving the church has climbed to 181,000 in 2010. The exodus has been blamed on revelations of sexual abuse by German priests.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The bishops say they have been alarmed by the number of Catholics leaving the Church, and such a step would be seen as a serious act against the community.

All Germans who are officially registered as Catholics, Protestants or Jews pay a religious tax of eight to nine percent on their annual income tax bill. The levy was introduced in the 19th Century in compensation for the nationalization of religious property.

"If your tax bill is for 10,000 euros, then 800 euros will go on top of that and your total tax combined will be 10,800 euros," Munich tax accountant Thomas Zitzelsberger says.

While Catholics make up around 30 percent of Germany's population, the number of the former faithful leaving the church has climbed to 181,000 in 2010. The exodus has been blamed on revelations of sexual abuse by German priests.

The bishops were also pushed into action by a case involving a retired professor of church law, Hartmut Zapp, who announced in 2007 that he would no longer pay the tax -- but said he intended to remain within the Catholic faith.

The Freiburg University academic said he wanted to continue praying and receiving Holy Communion. A legal case between Professor Zapp and the church will reach the Leipzig Federal Administrative Court this week.

"This decree makes clear that one cannot partly leave the Church," Germany's bishops' conference said last week, in a decision endorsed by the Vatican.

The bishops say that unless they pay the religious tax, Catholics will no longer be allowed to receive sacraments, except before death, or work in the church and its schools or hospitals.

Without a "sign of repentance before death, a religious burial can be refused," the decree states. Opting out of the tax could also prevent people from acting as godparents to Catholic children.

"This decree at this moment of time is really the wrong signal by the German bishops who know that the Catholic church is in a deep crisis," Christian Weisner from the grassroots Catholic campaign group We are Church told TV journalists.

Father Lukas Glocker, a priest from Mannheim in south-western Germany said the tax was used to do essential good works.

"With kindergarten, with homes for elderly or unemployed, we've got really good things so I know we need the tax to help the German country to do good things."

While the decree severely limits active participation in the German Catholic Church, it does hold out some hope for anyone considering re-embracing their faith.

Any German Catholic who previously stopped payment faced eventual excommunication. Although the measures laid out in the decree are similar to excommunication from the church, German observers say the word is carefully avoided in the decree.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Germany, Roman Catholics, church tax, excommunication

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1 - 7 of 7 Comments

blacksheep09
5 months ago
Dust of your shoes the marching boots are here again, this is the result of not having a seperation of Church and State. God gives us the template and the Germans can't seem to get it right. Your tithe/offering is from the heart not at sword point, the German state view it as a right to all your capital to use as it sees fit; this includes church buildings and functions, give the German two steps and he may rewrite the Bible oh wait that was an Austrian.
a Catholic
7 months ago
I’m a proud US Catholic survivor from Europe, from a Liberal socialist criminal government. The government where the Marxist even murdered some of my friends, professors, priest just because they were Catholics and didn’t accept the criminal laws from the Socialists. By our Bishops advice, we never left the seminary alone to go out into the public. At least one more person was with us for security reason at all times. (here in US some corporations do the same Socialist dirty job.) That way we had more chance if something is happening to have a survivor as a witness. I survived after some beatings, after they/ socialists openly told us that if some of you escape to the ‘free world’ “we will be there, too. “Under the liberal name you will recognize us. Only the different is that there societies even have no clue that what we are going to do with them and their government. We are more advanced there, and the right time we will hit down their government and the society.” (early 80’s) The different is in the communist time they were at least more open, but in the liberal socialism they are very secretive and misleading.
You have a Police Science major in the states, (I know it is new news for most of you) where they teach how to interview people and lie on high level to open up people for more information. This is the sign when a society is rotting. Sorry, but you able to read about it only in the Torah how to lie for a Goy.
In some Catholic churches in the states, (and it is spreading globally) it feels like you are entering a marketplace than a Catholic Church. Most of the Catholics don’t recognize that it is a Sacred Place, a place where you need to be quiet and don’t disturb those few who perhaps like to pray, meditate or just prepare for the mass. If you like to chat you have plenty place for that purpose; a bar, restaurant, marketplace or etc., but please not at a sacred place, don’t desecrate the Lords place. It is not enough just become a Catholic but you need to live it, and kneel in front of your Lord, just as the Pope does, or even Jesus did because the Lord is your creator. In the States, is very visible the protestant influence on the Catholic Churches - we are the man, we are able to stand on our own two feet because we are Americanized. We are able to take it in our two hands and do it in our way. That is the Americanism. That is what teaches against the Vatican and one of my professors from the past, who is an Archbishop today. We never can turn to Americanism and the same time be a good Catholic. Good example for this the Anglicanism.
God bless you all.
a Catholic
7 months ago
I’m a proud US Catholic survivor from Europe, from a Liberal socialist criminal government. The government where the Marxist even murdered some of my friends, professors, priest just because they were Catholics and didn’t accept the criminal laws from the Socialists. By our Bishops advice, we never left the seminary alone to go out into the public. At least one more person was with us for security reason at all times. (here in US some corporations do the same Socialist dirty job.) That way we had more chance if something is happening to have a survivor as a witness. I survived after some beatings, after they/ socialists openly told us that if some of you escape to the ‘free world’ “we will be there, too. “Under the liberal name you will recognize us. Only the different is that there societies even have no clue that what we are going to do with them and their government. We are more advanced there, and the right time we will hit down their government and the society.” (early 80’s) The different is in the communist time they were at least more open, but in the liberal socialism they are very secretive and misleading.
You have a Police Science major in the states, (I know it is new news for most of you) where they teach how to interview people and lie on high level to open up people for more information. This is the sign when a society is rotting. Sorry, but you able to read about it only in the Torah how to lie for a Goy.
In some Catholic churches in the states, (and it is spreading globally) it feels like you are entering a marketplace than a Catholic Church. Most of the Catholics don’t recognize that it is a Sacred Place, a place where you need to be quiet and don’t disturb those few who perhaps like to pray, meditate or just prepare for the mass. If you like to chat you have plenty place for that purpose; a bar, restaurant, marketplace or etc., but please not at a sacred place, don’t desecrate the Lords place. It is not enough just become a Catholic but you need to live it, and kneel in front of your Lord, just as the Pope does, or even Jesus did because the Lord is your creator. In the States, is very visible the protestant influence on the Catholic Churches - we are the man, we are able to stand on our own two feet because we are Americanized. We are able to take it in our two hands and do it in our way. That is the Americanism. That is what teaches against the Vatican and one of my professors from the past, who is an Archbishop today. We never can turn to Americanism and the same time be a good Catholic. Good example for this the Anglicanism.
God bless you all.
Larry
7 months ago
This world and the Catholic church just keep heading into darker waters. It sure does seem like THE END isn't far away. The church will eventually fall apart, paving the way for the Antichrist.
vance
7 months ago
The Western Catholic Church has been falling apart since Vatican II. The German situation is coming to America very very soon. The HHS Mandate will result in the same way. If the church does not comply with the Mandate, schools, hospitals, and churches will be shut down, The State of Massachusetts shut down Catholic Adoption Services because the would not comply with a law that requires them to adopt out children to Homosexuals. I didn't hear so much as a whisper from the church in protest. Shows us how much the leadership cares.
William Sutherland
7 months ago
This is a sad day for German Catholics. Not only is the German Catholic tax extortion, but it is a denial of every Catholic's right to seek Jesus, receive communion, and to exercise their relationship with God. The poor widow would have been the first barred from the German Catholic Church. I'm glad I'm an American Catholic, otherwise I would have been compelled to opt out.

One can only hope that the misguided German bishops return to Catholicism and the roots of Catholic faith. Right now, their policy is cruel and completely contradicts God's love.

William
http://www.amazon.com/God-is-Love-ebook/dp/B009EGHXVK/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1348678234&sr=1-2&keywords=God+is+love
Joselyn
7 months ago
Is it me or does this sound wrong? Not paying a tax you don't get the body of Christ and a Christian burial? That seems wrong on so many levels.

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