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Patrick O'Brien's avatar

Chris, I am going to contact Leo and ask him to avoid shenanigans for a day or two so that you can get some rest.

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Prodigal's avatar

I have stopped attending Mass here in Germany. Why? Because I am Catholic. The Catholic Church in Germany is dead. It has been replaced with the sham Chris points to in this post.

It has been dying the death for a long time. Examples: When I arrived here 25 years ago, seeking employment, a German Catholic friend urged me to indicate my religious denomination on my resumé. This would greatly improve my chance of being hired in Cologne, or anywhere in the Rheinland, also needless to say in Bavaria.

I took her advice. I was hired. As required by law, my employer reported my Catholic status to the tax authorities, who in turn were required by law to immediately begin deducting the "church tax" from my salary every month. How much? Approx. 40 Euros. Not exactly small change. And they still pass the basket around on Sunday, of course :)

It gets better ... all Catholic clergy in Germany are civil servants. You can find their salary tables online, as for any civil servant. Let that one sink in, what the implications might be.

Mo' better: My coworkers strongly encouraged me to stop paying the tax. They were amazed I had been so ill-advised to register my faith with the tax authorities. This required that I formally register my refusal to pay the tax. And that formal request automatically, by law, excommunicated me from the Roman Catholic Church. This meant I was no longer officially permitted to receive the sacraments, nor to be married in the Church, nor to have a Catholic burial, not even to receive the last rites on my deathbed.

A few countries have the Church tax, but none of them come even close to exploiting the faithful like the German Church does.

Presumably none of the above raised an eyebrow in Rome. Why would it? More money in the coffers, more abusive control of the meek flock. According to plan.

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