Posted on 09/21/2012 9:19:48 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
ROMAN Catholics in Germany who decline to pay the country's church tax will be denied communion, confession and a religious burial under moves signed by the Pope that, in effect, excommunicate them.
The decree, issued yesterday by Germany's bishops and approved by Benedict XVI, seeks to end a long-running dispute over the implications for Germany's 24.6 million Catholics of opting out from a church tax. It will block churchgoers who choose not to pay the optional levy from becoming godparents or belonging to a Roman Catholic congregation.
The church tax, which is collected by provincial authorities and is between 8 per cent and 9 per cent of income depending on the state collecting it, raises almost €5 billion ($6.2bn) a year.
"The declaration of leaving the church before the competent civil authority ... is a deliberate and wilful alienation from the church and is a grave offence against the Christian community," states the decree, which comes into effect this weekend.
The document does not use the word "excommunication" but spells out "legal" sanctions that amount to the same thing.
Until now, Catholics have been permitted to remain members of the church even if they choose not to pay the tax.
The issue was forced on to the agenda by the refusal of a prominent Catholic academic to pay the tax. Hartmut Zapp, a retired canon lawyer, was taken to court but claimed his religious rights. "What bothers me is that a member of the church of Christ loses his soul because of a declaration before a state authority," he said.
His appeal verdict at the Federal Administrative Court is expected soon.
There were also warnings that the rule would further reduce the popularity of the Catholic Church in Germany. The number of German Catholics fell by 181,000 in 2010, according to figures published by the German Bishops' Conference.
Herbert Frahm, a former Catholic, said: "I have resigned from this hypocritical club. There are many ways to do good with the money I have saved from the church tax. Leaving the church does not change anything about my religious beliefs. I am extremely doubtful whether Jesus Christ would pay his church tax to stay in this club."
Germany's bishops risk being seen as "keen to impose money-grubbing sanctions", warned the newspaper Die Welt in an editorial.
The church tax, which is collected by provincial authorities and is between 8 per cent and 9 per cent of income depending on the state collecting it, raises almost €5 billion ($6.2bn) a year....Until now, Catholics have been permitted to remain members of the church even if they choose not to pay the tax.
Benedict is always ready to party like it’s 1399
I admit to not being a good Catholic, but this sounds like a really crappy thing to do.
What?? There’s a church tax in Germany for Catholics? Did we go back to the 17th century?
I thought the Catholic church did away with “paid salvation” hundreds of years ago.
How on earth is this close to legal??
"What Would Jesus Do?" indeed.
8-9 percent of income as a church tax? wtf
Protestants also pay a church tax, unless they similarly opt out.
It sucks — a lot of German laws suck. What about poor people who can’t afford the 8-9% tax, you can’t blame them. The whole system sucks. [They can’t home school either, parents can and have been thrown in jail. A German family won political asylum in the US because they home schooled their children.]
Wow.
I knew about the tax, we had a German exchange student. She told us that everyone pays, you pick a group and that’s where the tax goes.
It’s sorta like coerced pretend tithes.
I believe the idea is that German citizens "check a box" on their income tax forms as to their religious affiliation, and the German government funds state-recongized churches based on the response, instead of the churches being funded by private/direct donations. I've seen similar taxing programs in Spain and Canada. I'm guessing the church's response in Germany is along the lines of "If you deny Me before men, I will deny you before the Father".
From Acts 5:1-5
But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back some of the proceeds, and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. (Acts (RSV) 5)
These are just a few reasons that its bad not to contribute to the Church if one is a member of it.
Wikipedia's church tax entry (yes, I know the Wikipedia warnings) claims that the tax is 8%-9% of the income tax collected. With income tax rates up to 45%, that means the church tax would be less than half the listed rate.
I’m struggling to understand this article. Is it a national tax, imposed by Germany, and only collected by the Catholic Church? Or, is it a Catholics-only tax, imposes by the Catholic Church?
Reminds me of my dad’s uncle. When he died the family was told that the Church would not say his funeral Mass because he had not kept up with the collection envelopes (had to take him across the river to another Diocese for the funeral).
My local Church steadfastly denies that they would ever do this. Does burn me though that they’d stop serving the Eucharist to cheap Germans but not to Kathleen Sebelius.
I have no opinion on the church tax, but Matthew 17:24-27 shows Jesus paying the Temple tax.
So refusing to pay a compulsory tax = promising that all this money came from the sale of my property, thus, “look how “holy” we are”?
Guess you missed what their actual sin was, it sure as heck wasn’t refusing to tithe 10% of the sale.
“Until now, Catholics have been permitted to remain members of the church even if they choose not to pay the tax.”
In 2009 the tax law was overturned in a case of a man that declared he left the organization but not the Catholic faith. The Catholic church appealed and the law was reinstated so the payment and collection returned to being involuntary on all registered Catholics.
Withdrawing from the church was the only way to avoid the tax and that meant excommunication.
The state collects the tax and is paid a small fee for so doing. This as of last year.
Sorta. It seems they must declare they are leaving the Church.
From wiki:
The church tax is only paid by members of the respective religious corporate body under public law . Those who are not members of a tax collecting denomination are not required to pay it. Members of a religious community which is a corporate body under public law may formally declare to state authorities that they wish to leave the community (this is commonly referred to as “leaving the church”). With such declaration, the obligation to pay church taxes ends. The concerned religious organisations usually refuse to administer rites of passage, such as marriages and burials of (former) members who had seceded. To rejoin a religious corporate body under public law one would get one’s declaration of re-entry officially recorded.
“Does burn me though that they’d stop serving the Eucharist to cheap Germans but not to Kathleen Sebelius.”
Freegards
The German tax is for all (recognized) churches not just Catholic.
There are still state churches in Europe and many countries have a church tax.
“A church tax is a tax imposed on members of some religious congregations in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Sweden, some parts of Switzerland and several other countries.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_tax
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