Europeans, having dumped God and religion in favor of socialism, now look to tax religion in order to save them from the ravages of their chosen idolatry.
European countries, desperate over failing economies and mountains of socialistic debt are now targeting Church property, long exempt from taxation, as a potential source of revenue.
Alcala de Henares, Spain — Cash-strapped officials in Europe are looking for a way to ease their financial burden by upending centuries of tradition and seeking to tap one of the last untouched sources of wealth: the Catholic Church.
Thousands of public officials who have seen the financial crisis hit their budgets are chipping away at the various tax breaks and privileges the church has enjoyed for centuries.
...
Political groups have seized on the crisis as an opportunity to open up a larger debate about whether it is time to unwind some of the deals struck generations ago between church and state in predominantly Catholic countries in Europe.
And when their socialist gods have taxed the Catholic Church to death, what then? Who is next?
While it may be tempting to just shake your head at the foolishness of the Eurpoeans, just keep in mind that this will happen here too if things continue the way they are.
Remember, in the minds of our secular elites, only after a really foolish idea has devastated Europe does it have the pedigree to be offered as a solution to America's problems.
Mark my words, in the near future some secular liberal politician in a safe district will propose something like this in the U.S. as a trial balloon .There will be initial outrage and the proposal will be immediately withdrawn. And then some other city or state will try the same thing and it will likely fail. But then the idea will be out there and will begin to seem to some reasonable and eventually inevitable. And then they will do it for real.
When they come for the Church here it will not initially be with bullets, but with trial balloons.
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I’ve heard a lot of people calling for it now. Not people in government, but I suppose they will be next.
It’s really hilarious how much you do not know anything about Europe (or much else). The European Union is based on the plot of a godless (or rather Mammon-worshiping) capitalist elite looking to impose unregulated capitalism to the peoples of Europe, half of whom (mostly the Catholic peoples) hate capitalism based on the evident fact that capitalism is anti-catholic (see Weber’s “Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism” : Protestants succeed at capitalism, Catholics suck at it, almost as if capitalism was opposed to everything Catholicism is and stands for), a fact confirmed by the anti-capitalist teachings of all the Popes since Leo XIII. Spain, that looks to tax the Catholic church, is now lead by a “conservative” (read : ultra-capitalist) Prime Minister, not a socialist at all. How you can see the hand of socialism in any of this is a testimony to your complete lack of knowledge about Europe (or much else for that matter) and to the way you have embraced the Protestant anti-Catholic and pro-capitalist spirit of the American Empire.
But the time is approching where you will have to make a choice between Christ, the poor carpenter who funded the Catholic Church, a Church of slaves and the poorest of the poor, who has hated money for two thousand years, under the guidance of Catholic Kings (see the anti-bankers, pro-State policies of Saint Louis, Louis XIV and his minister Colbert,...) and above all the Popes (see every anti-capitalist encyclicals since Rerum Novarum), on the one hand, and on the other hand, Mammon, the false god of bankers and stock-brockers, who has inspired Protestant pro-capitalism since the Reform and is starving the poorest of the poor.
Choose well. And before that get yourself educated.
Well, there would definitely be some upsides to churches paying taxes. Maybe the bishops would stop advocating for expensive social programs if they had some skin in the game. And they would no longer need to pussyfoot around so as not to jeopardize their “non-partisan” label. Not to mention all those scam churches who hide under the “nonprofit” umbrella (think L. Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientology). The tax code in our country is so unfair right now that it’s hard for me to get worked up or feel it’ll be more unfair if suddenly churches, healthcare, and educational institutions were taxed. I know Catholic churches feed, clothe, treat, and house millions of people, but I would hope that we’re not doing that because we get a tax break.
This is truely irony. The Church which has in the modern age told its believers to render unto Ceasar meant to pay whatever the government demanded as tribute. It is now going to reap what it has sown.
If it mean that our spiritual fathers will stop being afraid to say that the “consistent ethic of life” does not mean abortion and euthanasia are on the same level as providing CFLs for fixed-income seniors, then TAX AWAY! I’d rather pay taxes and have intellectual autonomy than have our leaders be afraid to speak Truth because it might jeopardize the Church’s tax status.
And, what Eileen said. Maybe the USCCB and Nuns on the Bus won’t be so eager to encourage social programs if they have to pay for them. Kind of like the Sisters of Mercy are pro-union until it comes to their St. Xavier University, and then unions aren’t such a great thing.
I am against much of taxation anyway, but there is no reason to say that Churches should not be taxed. This may even give the Church more sway in arguments against or for her social teaching (and before I get yelled at, this includes abortion)
this article is ridiculous. Both the US and Europea have long replaced god with CAPITALISM - a system serving the Mammon and encouraging greed – not socialism, and now reaping the fruit. True, some European countries have some elements of social justice in their systems, because unlike the US (which has only two parties of the same wing - the right and the crazy-right), Europeans have a wide range of political beliefs and parties both on the right and on the left (although only very moderate leftists have any real power), which sometimes results in a kind of compromise, which gives something to the poor and the middle-class, while preserving the dominance of the rich and powerful. And indeed, I agree with poster Thibaud - it would be very difficult to reconcile Catholic teaching with capitalism of the American type.
It’s always amusing when someone rants about ignorance, and yet demonstrates their bone-dry ignorance of what the Catholic Church teaches. No, the Church does not teach and has never taught that capitalism is evil, and definitely not that it is anti-Catholic. Granted it was almost impossible to make out what Thibaud was saying, what with the endless stream of paranthetical asides, but both he and vitto are operating on vastly false assumptions.
I saw a similar headline in the “Washington Post” last week. If one religious institution is taxed, who’s next?
Does no one else find it troubling that the Catholic Church is being categorized as “one of the last untouched sources of wealth?” I find it interesting that so many fail to understand that the Church doesn’t “own” the land, churches, artwork, etc. anymore than the U. S. gov’t “owns” the national parks: they are stewards of such places and things and are to care for them so that *all* may benefit. (For example, how else would the poor be able to enjoy Michelangelo if not for the Church?)
RMMT ,
Exactly.If the Church didn’t hold those artworks for us, they’d be in private ownership where we couldn’t enjoy them.But that’s too logical a train of thought for those with anti-Catholic agendas.
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