GERMANY
The Australian
The Times
September 22, 2012
ROMAN Catholics in Germany who decline to pay the country’s church tax will be denied communion, confession and a religious burial under moves signed by the Pope that, in effect, excommunicate them.
The decree, issued yesterday by Germany’s bishops and approved by Benedict XVI, seeks to end a long-running dispute over the implications for Germany’s 24.6 million Catholics of opting out from a church tax. It will block churchgoers who choose not to pay the optional levy from becoming godparents or belonging to a Roman Catholic congregation.
The church tax, which is collected by provincial authorities and is between 8 per cent and 9 per cent of income depending on the state collecting it, raises almost €5 billion ($6.2bn) a year.
“The declaration of leaving the church before the competent civil authority … is a deliberate and wilful alienation from the church and is a grave offence against the Christian community,” states the decree, which comes into effect this weekend.
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