Now, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, put into power by the elite, as a "technocrat",issued a statement on Wednesday night saying it had informed the European Commission that it would pass a law ending the Church's exemption from local property taxes on its properties used for commercial purposes.
The statement said the proposal to be presented in parliament would limit the tax exemption to structures that are "exclusively non-commercial." It did not say when it would present the bill.
The European Commission in 2010 opened a probe against Italy to determine if tax breaks for some Church properties amounted to illegal state aid and distorted competition. Of course, the real solution should be for tax breaks for all of us, not ending religious tax breaks.
Totalitarians hate religion. It's a threat to their dictatorial powers.
It should come as no surprise, thus, that the Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Wikipedia correctly reports:
....the communist regime confiscated religious property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in schools.The confiscation of religious assets was often based on accusations of illegal accumulation of wealth.That we are now seeing aggressive attacks against the Catholic church is not a good sign. Totalitarians are not going to move against the church lightly. They must feel confident. The church should battle every step of the elitist power grab.
Catholic or not, everyone should cheer on the church in its battle against the state.
Perhaps Churches will start to speak up against the State's atrocities...especially its wars.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that their tax-exempt status has helped to keep a lid on any open dissent.
When I pass by a church, the sign should "End the Wars Now!"
I've always been impressed by the fact that, even though the Soviet Union tried to banish religion, it actually created a black market for it...Churches still existed, they were just hidden from view.
The State wants nothing above it...especially not the idea of a Creator...so churches should openly resist, while they still can.
Ugh I have some idiotic friends at church that like to site Romans 13. Also Matthew 22:21 "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."
ReplyDeleteI say, what is God's? Oh everything? Can't we name myriad verses that show EVERYTHING is God's? Stupid warmongering Christians. You'd think their Bible translation says Blessed are the Warmongers.
There is a popular resentment of religion which is the end result of the abhorrence of free association and private property. That the Catholics bore the brunt of it, vis a vis Obama's contraception debacle, is only due to the fact that as an entity it's so well-established, bureaucratic, and large.
ReplyDeleteFurther, it was only a matter of time before the bankrupt EU went after one of the richest private, tax-exempt organizations in the world. If I didn't hate taxes I'd totally agree with Frank Zappa's old mantra, "tax the churches."
People can believe what they like privately, but it's my opinion that it's folly to put your weight behind the Catholic Church as a kind of private bullwark against state aggression. Frankly, I see no difference between Vatican City and Washington, metaphorically when you get down to it, and historically there's been no difference. Granted, Rome's wings have been clipped in recent centuries.
The point is, a secular State or a religious State is stil "The State." The solution is NO State.
"Totalitarians hate religion. It's a threat to their dictatorial powers."
ReplyDeleteWell, yeah, but few people realize that the context of Lord Acton's famous remark, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" was in criticizing the divine right of kings and papal supremacy. And Acton said it as as a member of the Roman communion himself.
Again, the West was profoundly influenced by Christianity, much more the Protestant Reformation from which many of our civil liberties derive, i.e. a written constitution, separation of powers and church and state, habeus corpus, the outlawing of torture etc.
While I am no friend of the Roman church, they need to tell Geo. W. Obama to butt out of business he's got no business butting into.
But on the other hand, at least pro abortion Joe Biden, if not now also Sibelius, should have been excommunicated ages ago, so who knows how it will all shake out.
Maybe Herr Obama will prevail by indefinitely detaining some archbishops until they come around. We best hope they don't.
Habeas corpus and separation of church and state predate the Reformation and derive, at least in the anglo world, from the Magna Carta, I believe.
DeleteThe Church, amongst other institutions, played a major role in liberty not because it actively championed liberty (although its theologians and intellectuals sometimes did) but because it had its own substantial power base (in the form of wealth, land and the allegiance of the faithful) and acted therefore as a check on worldly state power. The church was a competitor to the state and an alternate source of legitimate authority.
I said Christianity, much more the Protestantism. Yes, habeas corpus flows from the Mgna Carta, but it was until Protestantism that the state did not enforce the edicts of the church, though they were separate entities before.
DeleteClassically speaking, the family (individuals, business, communities, clubs etc.), the church and the state are all separate legitimate authorities/spheres of influence. The trick is to keep them in their respective domains instead of encroaching upon and usurping other areas.
Bertrand Russell warned that if the American elite did not do something, the US would soon be a Catholic country... (The post war Baby Boom was mostly ethnic Catholics) so they did something, and have been waging a war on Catholics since... all ethnic Catholic enclaves of political power have been crushed -Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia (when the Quakers went to War), Boston etc. qua their ethnic Catholicism; and the Boomers and their children have been bought off by the lucre of assimilation. Both major political parties are essentially versions of Calvinism -either legislating heaven on earth or legislating everyone into heaven. Santorum is a good example of the co opted right winger, Pelosi a good example of the co opted left... when faced with this reality my father, in a conversation asked, "Well, what the hell do we do?" And as much of a brawler as I am, I responded, "Suffer, Jesus did." I just want Catholics to realize what a demonic and pagan government they live under, and I hope the HHS mandate will help them realize they shouldn't stand for the anthem, nor think that Romans 13 (comment above) abdicates them from the coming suffering. But we Catholics also believe in natural law, and things that cannot continue, don't. JPII warned in the 90s, the flush, easy, post-communist 90s, that it will get worse before it gets better... it is getting worse... and as Catholic writer Tolkien said "it is always darkest before the dawn."
ReplyDeleteInteresting take. As one born in the Roman communion, but be the grace of God a Protestant Christian, I agree with the Protestant Reformers who believed that the pope was the western antichrist, as Mohammed was the eastern, both sent by God to a disobedient church.
DeleteThat said, the Romanists under the constitution have a right to resist the current version of Big Brother. If they don't and he prevails, he will be looking for ever greener pastures in which to exercise his tyranny. That means the rest of us.
The Church was seen as an anti-communist ally during the Cold War, but since the Berlin Wall has come down the Popes have been prominent opponents of the neocon wars. These wars have plainly fallen outside the just war criteria and the chaos they have generated is a threat to the mainly Catholic and Orthodox Christian minorities of the mid east. At one time it is possible that the US Right may have been sympathetic to the Church where the Left, focusing on gay and abortion issues, were opposed. Now both wings are opposed.
ReplyDeleteThe US right is opposed to the Roman church? Please explain. Santorum for one, is RC.
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