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Mass Exodus Continues from German Catholic Church
Catholic Culture ^ | 7/17/15

Posted on 07/20/2015 6:25:04 AM PDT by marshmallow

More than 200,000 Germans formally left the Catholic Church in 2014, accelerating the downward trend in the Catholic proportion of the country’s population.

Germans who are officially enrolled in congregation are subject to a “church tax,” and so disaffected Catholics have an incentive to drop their registration, rather than simply stop attending Mass. The number of Catholics taking that step has increased sharply in recent years.

In 2013, 178,805 Catholics formally dropped off the parish rolls in Germany. In 2014 that figure jumped by 22%, to 217,716, according to official statistic released by the German bishops’ conference.

(Excerpt) Read more at catholicculture.org ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: taxes
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The Synod shenanigans of Kasper and Marx need to be viewed against this backdrop. Western Europe is apostate and painful times await it.
1 posted on 07/20/2015 6:25:04 AM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

Yeowch, I had not heard these stats before...


2 posted on 07/20/2015 6:27:27 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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To: marshmallow

You know those church buildings will probably end up being used by another religion that that’s been growing a lot in Europe lately.


3 posted on 07/20/2015 6:29:58 AM PDT by MNDude (God is not a Republican, but Satan is certainly a Democrat.)
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To: marshmallow

Are Lutherans also subject to the church tax?


4 posted on 07/20/2015 6:31:05 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: marshmallow

The government should not collect taxes for churches. By doing so, it knows who is in what religion. I don’t trust government with that information.


5 posted on 07/20/2015 6:33:33 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country)
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To: marshmallow

The USA is only about a decade or two behind the Europeans in this race to the bottom.


6 posted on 07/20/2015 6:34:50 AM PDT by ckilmer (q)
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To: marshmallow

If the Pope keeps making love to Communism it will be global.


7 posted on 07/20/2015 6:36:03 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: marshmallow

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11380968/Compulsory-income-tax-on-Christians-drives-Germans-away-from-Protestant-and-Catholic-churches.html
((Church members in Germany are required by law to pay tax to fund church activities, which is collected by the government.
Under German law, anyone who was baptised as a child is automatically a member of the church and obliged to pay the tax, charged as a percentage of their income, regardless of their beliefs or whether they attend church services.


But the only way out of paying the tax is to make a formal declaration renouncing your membership of the church – and there is a government fee for this as well.))


8 posted on 07/20/2015 6:37:25 AM PDT by libertarian27 (FR Cookbooks - On Profile Page)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Si, senor...


9 posted on 07/20/2015 6:40:31 AM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations: The acronym explains the science.)
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To: marshmallow

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/10/06/world/europe/german-church-ties-tax-to-sacraments-after-court-ruling.html?referrer=


10 posted on 07/20/2015 6:42:03 AM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: marshmallow

And everyone thinks Germany is the cats meow.


11 posted on 07/20/2015 6:44:54 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: marshmallow

Coming soon to American churches.


12 posted on 07/20/2015 6:54:08 AM PDT by FamiliarFace
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To: afraidfortherepublic; I want the USA back; marshmallow
The German govt. will definitely collect taxes for Catholics and Lutherans and I think other legally registered churches, too. The German Catholic hierarchy has shriveling congregations and is rolling in cash.

Historically there were kinda sorta legitimate reasons for this tax. Various German governments in the past appropriated --- confiscated, stole --- church properties, and the govt. offered reimbursement in terms of tax revenues.

But the result is what we see: fat-cat hierarchs living like princes, without faith themselves, and losing the faithful in droves. "The Faithful Departed."

13 posted on 07/20/2015 6:55:38 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (The eye can't say to the hand, I don't need you -the head can't say to the feet, I don't need you)
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To: marshmallow

Well, either that (save a few euros) or people are simply fed up with the idiotic policies the priests and bishops push. That goes for the protestants as well.

Hmmm....


14 posted on 07/20/2015 7:08:52 AM PDT by Moltke
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Bingo.

Precisely.


15 posted on 07/20/2015 7:13:07 AM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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To: marshmallow

There are free church’s in the area that are growing. I am not sure about any free church Catholic parishes, but I suspect there may be a few.


16 posted on 07/20/2015 7:32:49 AM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: FamiliarFace

Why do you say that?

I don’t think it will happen in the Catholic Church.


17 posted on 07/20/2015 7:40:23 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: MNDude
You know those church buildings will probably end up being used by another religion that that’s been growing a lot in Europe lately.

Kinda like...


18 posted on 07/20/2015 8:02:22 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: MNDude

I wonder if they are subject to the same tax.


19 posted on 07/20/2015 8:24:23 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: FamiliarFace

I think the government would love to collect more taxes, and they will try to follow suit here in the USA. If doing so tears congregations from their churches, all the better in their eyes. There isn’t a tax the left doesn’t love, and they are the ones who run the show around here on a consistent basis. The right must love taxes, too, as they rarely stand up to the left. When they do, it’s too little, too late. They’ve already been slowly boiling in the pot.


20 posted on 07/20/2015 9:23:26 AM PDT by FamiliarFace
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