Tuesday 25 September 2012

Taxing Troubles in the German Church

Many of you will have read in recent days reports of the German Kirchensteur, a system whereby Germans who declare themselves to be Catholics, Protestants or Jews are required to pay a tax of around 8% to support their stated Church. Around 30% of the German population is Catholic and the Catholic Church is very rich and Catholic priests enjoy a very substantial income.

In recent years Catholics in Germany have been abandoning the Church in droves, due mostly to the sex abuse scandals and the post Vatican II corruption of the Church. To stem this flow the German bishops have just issued a decree stating that any Catholic who opts out of the Kirchensteur is to be considered in a state of excommunication and is to be denied the sacraments including a Requiem Mass and Catholic burial, and will not be able to be a sponsors or godparents and will not even be able to be employed in Catholic schools or hospitals.

Is this a case of simony? Probably not, but the seeds sown after Vatican II, in a church which has largely abandoned so much of true Catholic teaching, are now bearing their rotten fruit and the German Church has only got itself to blame.

A more in-depth discussion of the Kirchensteur can be found on the mundabor blog.


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