Italian church to be stripped of tax exemption from 2013

[Holly3278]

Well, I don’t know how it works in Italy but if Italian churches do not have full political speech rights like churches in the United States do then they should be granted these rights in return for taxing them.

 

[atheistgirl]

Militant secularists will just raise taxes until no more Catholic Church.

It isn’t possible to ever tax the Catholic Church out of existence.

The power to tax is the power to destroy, and secularists love to destroy.

Right.

Would you like a broader brush to paint with?

Tell that to Linda Norgrove’s family.

Sarah x

 

[trapper1]

Militant secularists will just raise taxes until no more Catholic Church.

The power to tax is the power to destroy, and secularists love to destroy.

This isn’t being driven by anticlericism…it’s being driven by the Italian debt crises. (no doubt anti-clericals are happy about it, but that doesn’t make it wrong).

The Church should divest herself of property that doesn’t have anything to do with faith, works, or culture. This seems to be something of a legacy of the papal states? Perhaps real estate owned from papal states days?

Just like temporal power (though to a much lesser extent), I think these actiivites confounds the Church’s real mission (to be Christ’s representative on earth).

 

[Cristiano]

This isn’t being driven by anticlericism…it’s being driven by the Italian debt crises. (no doubt anti-clericals are happy about it, but that doesn’t make it wrong).

The Church should divest herself of property that doesn’t have anything to do with faith, works, or culture. This seems to be something of a legacy of the papal states? Perhaps real estate owned from papal states days?

Just like temporal power (though to a much lesser extent), I think these actiivites confounds the Church’s real mission (to be Christ’s representative on earth).

I think that you are quite confused how finances must be managed in order to maintain a charitable structure that provides consistently year after year. The activities do not confuse the Church mission, it is the people that are not willing to take the time to understand and appreciate.
This effort is driven by anti-clericalism, and not by the Italian economical crisis, this logic has been going on at least over the last four decades while the present economical crisis is started ten or fifteen years ago because of a national culture of entitlement espouse by the so called “free market” financial institution and the so called pro social welfare groups.
This is what happens in a country where the only objective is to sit and wait for the other ideology to fail. Contrary to four decades ago where the opposition (of either kind) was serious in offering alternate socio-economic programs, in the last 10 or 15 years the policy (on either sides) was the one of sitting out and waiting for failure.

 

[EmperorNapoleon]

The Church should divest herself of property that doesn’t have anything to do with faith, works, or culture. This seems to be something of a legacy of the papal states? Perhaps real estate owned from papal states days?.

Most of these properties have been willed to the Church by parishioners. The Church inherited them and now its saddled with over $11 billion of taxable property that serves no religious purpose whatsoever but it does produce significant income.

 

[trapper1]

Most of these properties have been willed to the Church by parishioners. The Church inherited them and now its saddled with over $11 billion of taxable property that serves no religious purpose whatsoever but it does produce significant income.

Makes sense to sell it off and use the proceeds to support the Church’s religious, cultural, and charitable misions. Problem solved…

 

[Luigi_Daniele]

Makes sense to sell it off and use the proceeds to support the Church’s religious, cultural, and charitable misions. Problem solved…

Or keep it and use the proceeds to support the Church’s religious, cultural, and charitable missions in perpetuity.