Sometimes I wonder, when I am reading outrageous things in the German press, whether I am understanding the German correctly. In the case of the church tax, I was correct. Here is an English-language article:
CATHOLIC BISHOPS in Germany have announced plans to effectively excommunicate believers who refuse to pay the country’s controversial church tax.
The “general decree”, effective from September 24th, excludes non-payers from Communion, Confirmation and Confession or belonging to a Catholic congregation. Catholic funerals will also not be possible “if the person who has left the church has not shown any sign of remorse before death”.
The church says non-payment violates an obligation on its members to make a “financial contribution that allows the church to fulfil its role”.
Germany’s church tax has its origins as compensation for church property seized by state authorities in the early 19th century. Two centuries on, the tax, calculated as up to 8 per cent of income tax, raises approximately €5 billion annually for the Catholic Church; the Lutheran church receives €4 billion. It is collected by the state tax authorities and forwarded on to churches for a handling fee.
Anyone unwilling to pay can fill in a form at a state office. German bishops interpret this as a conscious break with the church but the Vatican said this step was not evidence of a clear “schism” and grounds for excommunication.
In a compromise with the Vatican, bishops will ask priests to write to anyone planning to leave, warning of the consequences and inviting them to meet.
“If the reaction of the believer . . . can be attributed to a schismatical, heretical or apostatical act,” the bishops write, “appropriate measures will be taken.”
At dinner my family was discussing this and the word simony kept popping up.
Father Antonio José Martinez (1793-1867) of Taos, New Mexico, was himself a wealthy man, but when Mexico became independent he was instrumental in abolishing compulsory tithes because he thought they hurt the poor and led to alienation from the Church. Martinez paid for most of the expenses of the local church out of his own pocket.
When Lamy became Archbishop of Santa Fe, he wanted his tithes and denied the sacraments to anyone who did not pay the tithe. Lamy planned a bureaucracy and a school system and needed money to pay for them. Martinez protested and this controversy was one of the major sources of the fight between Martinez and Lamy.
The more things change…
Has the pope really given the green light to this? It’s incredible that this goes on in such a secular and free society. It’s strange the Germans have maintained this practice in the face of 15% church attendance. I’d like to see someone try to pull this off on the Dutch or Irish! There would definitely be revolution.
It’s coming to America soon enough.
I attended a Mass in my archdiocese where the priest said that if anyone had a problem with the dogma of the Assumption to come see him in his office. He also said a woman in RCIA did have a problem and left the program. As he said, you must believe this dogma as it is essential to your salvation.
Our archbishop has chosen my parish to announce his $100 million campaign next month. Interestingly, the parish has just been making a major push to have youth groups (we had two pedophile priests operating here at one point). Parishioners have been called on to a) show up to usually poorly attended Mass and b) to have children participate as Eucharistic ministers, readers, etc.
Also, see on Zenit Cardinal Burke’s latest missive: canon law is to be the major tool of the new evangelization to address the issues of who should be admitted to the Eucharist and irregular marriages.
Also, the Vatican has created a 12 volume film on Vatican II to be distributed at the Synod and churches. I wonder if this is meant to replace the scholarly work on what happened at Vatican II by Peter Huenerman that is missing from every library on the east coast but one?
I had been wondering why the Legion was put in charge of a major Vatican communications initiative last year, inviting French industrialists and bankers to give $1 million each to the effort.
And if anyone doubts that money is not the reason behind the CDF’s initiative with American nuns, a blogger recently noted plans are to collapse all the religious orders into a few -as has happened in the papal past. BTW, what is more New Age and dangerous to the Church: elderly nuns dancing around with scarves and praying to the One, or hierarchs viewing themselves as guru-like divine manifestations who must be followed without question?
A smaller, more creative (and richer) minority coming to a parish near you…spearheaded by cult prelatures who are completely unaccountable to bishops worldwide. Viva, Monsignors!
Why b a catholic is u don’t want to tithe to help the church?
CM,
I think we’re seeing the conservative side of Vatican II taking over the Church. The progressive side is pretty much dead. The conservative side is blind just like the progressive side, but leading the Church on a path of slower decline rather than a rapid decline.
I discovered that being denied Christian burial if you are not listed on the tax roll as catholic has already been practice in Germany, for decades. I guess the other stuff is new? Or maybe they are codifyig it? Sad.
I think the powers that be are trying to force priests to go after individual Mass attendees (here and Germany) whom they know to be in irregular marriages, living together etc and not paying the church tax, as well as people who approach them for baptism for their kids or for marriage. In Germany, it is a matter of the state taking away funds so it is more obvious is all. I notice sermons here are following almost verbatim stuff I see on the Legion’s Zenit so I imagine their priestly institute is behind sending out canned sermons for the year of faith for priests to implement stricter rules etc. Behind this is the Jansenist tradition of demanding adherence to the Catechism, forcing proofs of loyalty/faith/contrition vs. attrition. It’s going to be a wild ride this coming year.
Not only did Archbisbop Lamy demand tithes, he also:
1)excommunicated the brotherhood of penitentes, 2) tore down native adobe churches and replaced them with French designed churches (Our Cathedral in Santa Fe for example), 3) replaced the statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe with Our Lady of Lourdes, 4) brought in French clergy to replace the native clergy of Father Martinez, 5) flooded each parish with French holy cards and miraculous medal,6) made sure that the next 3 archbishops after him were French and appointed his friends and relatives to high positions and pastors, 5) made sure his very close male “companion”, Machebeuf, was appointed Bishop of Denver, and 6) because of his French take-over, the Italian Jesuits decided to move their new College of the Sacred Heart in Las Vegas, NM to Denver,CO where it was renamed “Regis College” after the patron saint of alpine skiers.
CM,
“BTW, what is more New Age and dangerous to the Church: elderly nuns dancing around with scarves and praying to the One, or hierarchs viewing themselves as guru-like divine manifestations who must be followed without question?”
Both are symptoms of the politically bound accepted “global governance” religion.
A couple in Texas heard Dodd speak to 600 Catholics in CA. They had testified to what Bella Dodd said and had the paper notarized. Dodd stated she placed over a thousand Communist Party members in the seminaries on order from her bosses in the Vatican . Four Communist Party Cardinals. The notarized document was dated 1939!
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/polish-catholics-call-on-priests-who-spied-for-communists-to-come-clean-and
“Dr. von Hildebrand recalled in an interview with Latin Mass magazine in 2001, “Bella Dodd told my husband and me that when she was an active Party member, she had dealt with no fewer than four cardinals within the Vatican ‘who were working for us’.”
See more on Dodd from Toby Westerman:
http://www.catholiccitizens.org/platform/platformview.asp?c=7347
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2909862/posts
“Bernardin was made the Archbishop of Chicago in 1982. In 1986, Bernardin sent Barack Obama to California to attend a training seminar on Alinsky theory, tactics, and “community organizing”, which we all know now is Marxist infiltration and agitation of the proletariat with the objective of crushing the middle class, collapsing the economy and government, and thus enabling a Marxist-Communist-Fascist hybrid revolution, ending with the total destruction of the Church and global totalitarian tyranny.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRhZBbh7wLU&feature=related
Confiscation of property……….
Just one question.has it worked ot is it still a work in progress?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/804825/posts
Whether cleric or layman one thing is certian , when Faith is attacked overtly the wheat is separated from the chaff
“While the Catholic Church is attacked and reviled by liberal celebrities and various left-wing pressure groups, in Cuba it is one of the very few voices for the oppressed, standing in opposition to an often brutal totalitarian regime.
The American people deserve to know more and better understand the vicious nature of the Communist Cuban regime. We should stand with the Cuban people. ”
http://www.inatoday.com/cuban_spies_vs_vatican_5_7_12.htm
If anyone is interested
Perhaps this is why pope JP2 did not act on the Legion Founder
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/93469,%E2%80%98Gay-mafia-in-Polish-Church-claims-controversial-priest
“When researching his 2006 book, Isakowicz-Zaleski says that after he found evidence of widespread collaboration by priests with the communist authorities, he was told by the Krakow archdiocese to “throw the material in the incinerator”.
When he persisted with the research, Krakow’s Cardinal Dziwisz – a longtime aid to John Paul II – condemned his “irresponsible and harmful” activities, warned him to stop “throwing accusations” and banned him from speaking to the media.”
The Church has gone communist, just like everything else. Look at all the emphasis on planning committees, etc. All communitarian or communist efforts at brainwashing. Maybe John XXIII really was a communist. Hard to trust these jokesters anymore.
One of the reasons why the Paracletes chose New Mexico as their pedophile-priest recycling center was because the native Catholics were so brain-washed and backward, after their champion and hero Father Jose Martinez was excommunicated and defrocked. Their 2nd grade Baltimore Catechism Catholic education taught them never to question the authority of their priest/pastor who was an “alter Christus”. In my previous post about Archbishop Lamy, I said that he paved the way for a French takeover of the New Mexican clergy. The Cathedral at Sante Fe was a minature Notre Dame du Paris and the next 4, not 3, archbishops were all French born. This climate of unhampered laissez-faire-ism by the hierarchy enabled the abuses that followed. The Paracletes simply took advantage of it and the then sexually-compromised Archbishops Sanchez and Davis. This is why there was NO other diocese in the whole world, especially Boston (where Fr. Gerald orginally was from and where he first suggested his mission), that would allow his Order of the Servants of the Paraclete to embed itself in their territory. The price paid for this gift was the old Esperanza Hotel or Mountain Inn in Jemez Springs, which had previously been owned by friends of Al Capone and had been used as a hideout and gambling mecca for Hollywood types who were brought up from the Albuquerque train station. The land given to the Paraclete included most of the San Diego Canyon land grant and it was perfect because the road ended there and no one had heard of Los Alamos at that time. After decades of benign neglect and abuse by their French clergy overlords, the native Catholics would now be ripe for an influx of recycled pedophile priests.
Alton, I hope you can read this ….
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3DOpus%2BLibros%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26as_qdr%3Dall%26prmd%3Dimvns&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=es&twu=1&u=http://opuslibros.org/nuevaweb/modules.php%3Fname%3DNews%26file%3Darticle%26sid%3D5897&usg=ALkJrhg5P_B9bP_Ek9uHBuYFrX-FoAmmLQ
I am amazed that the new Movements within the church have been given their own Dicastery .
The Legion and Maciel aka Billionaires of Christ went on so long despite credible accusations “‘For the good of the Church”!
Many of the same accusations as on ReGain and Lifeafterrc have been made against OD, but Americans have not read about them because they are in the foriegn languages of the countries where the organization has been established and enjoyed a longer period recruitment.
Although Opus does not have the outrageous accusations of pederasty as does the Legion , it seems to go unnoticed that an Opus Dei Bishop has put the SSJ ,Fr Urrutigoity and friends, in charge of an Orphanage in Paraguay despite being informed of the history of the SSJ in the Scranton Diocese.Cartainly this cannot be ‘For the good of the church” or the poor children there.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/father-groeschel-goes/
http://www.regainnetwork.org/article.php?a=47246225
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3DOpus%2BLibros%26num%3D100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26as_qdr%3Dall%26prmd%3Dimvns&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=es&twu=1&u=http://www.opuslibros.org/prensa_libre.htm&usg=ALkJrhjrDbJjGNYzBGTD1nL6jefBx5wSCw
“Bond believes the society raised between $5 million and $6 million, using advertisements highlighting the planned religious community and college in Shohola.
While the college struggled, the society paid $8,800 for a bedroom set, $15,000 for a desk and china cabinet; and bought a $16,000 dining table without chairs, according to court papers.”
“Martino allowed Urrutigoity to transfer to Paraguay, where he has since been promoted to monsignor. The Society of Saint John operates there, overseeing a seminary and orphanage, according to a January 2012 report by Vancouver Sun writer Daphne Bramham.After a multi-year investigation, during which Ensey was barred from priestly duties, the Vatican dismissed Ensey as a priest in October 2011.”
But Urrutigoity continues as a Monsignor in Paraguay? $$$?
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120624/NEWS/206240335/-1/news
TheAltonRoute, I seriously doubt John XXIII was a Communist. First, he was ordained in 1904, more than a decade before the Russian Revolution. Second, and most importantly, he used his position as an apostolic delegate in Turkey to enable thousands of Jews to flee Nazi persecution. The Communists did nothing to help the Jews along those lines.
Read this about John XXIII’s role in WWII:
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=11727
Joseph, I highly recommend the writings of Fr Denis Fahey regarding the Rulers of Russia.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Rulers-Russia-Dennis-Fahey/dp/9998341981
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Fahey
His books were placed on the Index of forbidden books by the Vatican .
People are taking a second look now because in the light of events of the last century to date, they appear prophetic.
Mary,
Check out Antony Sutton’s book Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution as well as Carroll Quigley’s book The Anglo-American Establishment.
Mary, I’m not surprised that JPII would esssentially “handpick” his successor before his death (your link to Alton). I believe Benedict has tried to do the same thing. The question is whether Benedict is the pope the cardinal electors expected, or something quite different?
Mary wrote, “A couple in Texas heard Dodd speak to 600 Catholics in CA. They had testified to what Bella Dodd said and had the paper notarized. Dodd stated she placed over a thousand Communist Party members in the seminaries on order from her bosses in the Vatican . Four Communist Party Cardinals. The notarized document was dated 1939!”
I really don’t like being a nitpicker but details do matter.
If you are referring to the Leininger affidavit, it was not dated 1939. According to page 3 it was notarized on “March 28” but no year is specified. However, since the notary’s stamp states that her commission expires on November 30, 2004 and since notary commissions in the State of Texas are good for four years, the year would have to be between 2001 and 2004, inclusive.
Besides, Bella Dodd was kicked out of the Communist Party in 1949 and did not begin to give talks on the evils of Communism until a few years later.