[Triple]

If the priesthood had managed to keep homosexual predators out of the priesthood they would not be having this problem (as much).

The idea of letting the government collect church ‘donations’ is a bad one for many reasons.

[wideawake]

The idea of letting the government collect church ‘donations’ is a bad one for many reasons.

Correct. It was an expedient adopted to avoid civil war. It is not a good idea on its own merits.

[Cronos]

This dates from the Weimar constitution. Not only Catholics but all other religious communities get this money collected by the German govt

I think this is a stupid idea and should be ended.

Incidently this dates from Lutheran German states where the head of state the prince) was the one responsible for financing the Churches) hence once the princely states ended in 1919 with the end of the German Empire, the govt stepped in

This is similar to what India's government did to the Princes in India -- under the British Raj, princes got a stipend from the govt. The Indian govt continued to do this under the obligations of handover. They did this until 1971 when Indira Gandhi told the princes to go to heck

The German Churchs should end this

[Cronos]

Incidently, this is about 8% in Catholic bavaria and 9% in the rest of the country. Denmark, Iceland, Sweden etc. have a church tax too -- which amounts to 1% or so.

All of these should be abolished in my opinion.