Here's an interesting article on the costs of the church. Note
only ... that 8 per thousand (the so-called eight thousand) amounts to approximately EUR 1 billion !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who knows what we could do with that money the state !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The accounts of the Church is what it costs us "by Curzio Maltese
" When I came to CEI in 1986, there were barely enough money to pay the salaries of four employees. "Camillo Ruini does not exaggerate. In the mid-eighties, Vatican's finances are an empty box and black. One year after the arrival of the CEI Ruini, only the Vatican passport save the president IOR, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, for crack arrest of Roberto Calvi of Banco Ambrosiano. The economic crisis is the reason why John Paul II in Rome called the young Bishop of Reggio Emilia, then known only to the news for having celebrated the marriage of Flavia Franzoni and Romano Prodi, but endowed with managerial talent. Few choices will prove to be more appropriate. In the "twenty years Ruini, the president and secretary from 86 to '91, the IEC has developed into an economic power, and media and politics. In parallel, the chairman of the bishops has assumed a central role in public debate within the Vatican and Italian, as never before with its predecessors, to become the great elector of Benedict XVI. The reasons for the rise of Ruini related to intelligence, the iron will and extraordinary as an organizer of the character. But another key to read the parable is called "eight per thousand." A river of money begins to flow into the coffers of the CEI in the spring of 1990, when it comes to taking direct sull'Irpef regime, and now flows into the sea of \u200b\u200ba billion euro a year. Ruini is its undisputed dominus. Removed the automatic costs as the salaries of priests, is the chairman of the bishops' conference, through a few trusted associates, who had the last word on every single expense, the repair of a canonical construction of a mission in Africa for investment property and finanziari.
Dall'otto per mille, la voce più nota, parte l'inchiesta di Repubblica sul costo della chiesa cattolica per gli italiani. Il calcolo non è semplice, oltre che poco di moda. Assai meno di moda delle furenti diatribe sul costo della politica. Il "prezzo della casta" è ormai calcolato in quattro miliardi di euro all'anno. "Una mezza finanziaria" per "far mangiare il ceto politico". "L'equivalente di un Ponte sullo Stretto o di un Mose all'anno". Alla cifra dello scandalo, sbattuta in copertina da Il Mondo e altri giornali, sulla scia di La Casta di Rizzo e Stella e Il costo della democrazia di Salvi e Villone, si arriva sommando gli stipendi di 150 mila eletti dal popolo, dai parlamentari Europe's top adviser to the mountain communities, plus the fees of almost three hundred thousand consultants, the costs for the operation of ministries, the pensions of politicians, the electoral reimbursements, funding for the party newspaper, the blue car and other privileges, including buvette Barber and the Chamber of Deputies. For a level playing field should be adopted "the cost of the Church" the same open-mindedness. But one would arrive at the approximate Pharaonic figures, such trumpeted in pamphlets and in some sites anticlerical. With more prudence and realism can be established that the Catholic Church in any case costs taxpayers as much as the Italian political class. Over four billion euro per year, including direct financing of State and local governments and non-tax revenue. The first item consists of the eight billion euro per thousand, 650 million for the salaries of 22 000 time teachers of religion ("An old wreck concordat that would be eliminated" in the opinion of the Catholic writer Vittorio Messori) , another 700 million paid by State and local authorities for the conventions on education and healthcare. Then there is the voice of variable funding to important events, like Jubilee (3500 billion lire) at the last meeting of Loreto (2.5 million euro), for an annual average over the past decade, 250 million. These two billion 600 million of direct contributions to the Church should be added to a combination of tax advantages granted to the Vatican, now at the center of an investigation of the European Union for "state aid". The list is huge, national and local levels. Always with caution can be estimated in a range between 400 to 700 million for failure to collect the ICI (estimated non-market "of the Association of Municipalities), 500 million in exemptions from IRAP, IRES and other charges, in other 600 million tax avoidance legalized the Catholic world of tourism, which runs every year for Italy and a flow of forty million visitors and pilgrims. The total exceeds four billion per year, thus a financial tool, a bridge over the Strait or Mose year, more than a few tens of millions. The Catholic Church, not elected by the people and not subject to democratic constraints, costa agli italiani come il sistema politico. Soltanto agli italiani, almeno in queste dimensioni. Non ai francesi, agli spagnoli, ai tedeschi, agli americani, che pure pagano come noi il "costo della democrazia", magari con migliori risultati. Si può obiettare che gli italiani sono più contenti di dare i soldi ai preti che non ai politici, infatti se ne lamentano assai meno. In parte perché forse non lo sanno. Il meccanismo dell'otto per mille sull'Irpef, studiato a metà anni Ottanta da un fiscalista all'epoca "di sinistra" come Giulio Tremonti, consulente del governo Craxi, assegna alla Chiesa cattolica anche le donazioni non espresse, su base percentuale. Il 60 per cento dei contribuenti lascia in bianco la voce "otto per mille" but with 35 percent indicating "Catholic Church" among the permitted choices (the others were, Waldensians, Adventists, Assemblies of God, Jews and Lutherans), the CEI grabs nearly 90 percent of the total. A judicial monstrosity called the 84 already on the Sole 24 Ore historian Piero Bellini. But even considering the mechanism of "facilitating" eight per thousand, is a widespread belief that money to the Church are well designed, with a broad "social return". Half a financial agreement, but helpful to repay the valuable work done by the priests in the area, the daily effort of the parishes plug the gap in welfare increasingly evident, not to mention the efforts in the Third World. All topics true. But "how much" real? Deal in his pocket at the Vatican is desperate enterprise. But to understand where does the money while the Italians will be allowed to quote the same suspicion as the source CEI and its annual budget for the eighth thousand. Five euro of taxpayers' money, the conference of bishops said of spending for operations of a charity in Italy and abroad (respectively 12 and 8 percent of the total). € The other four are self-financing. Taken 35 percent of the total to pay salaries to about 39 000 Italian priests, is half a billion euro each year that the CEI Summit distributes within the Church in its sole opinion, without any serious control, under general headings such as " needs of worship, "" costs of catechesis, financial assets and real estate. Not to mention another paradox: if the "vote" eight per thousand was applied to half of the quorum, the Church would never see a euro. In Catholic culture to an extent far greater than in cultures timid liberal and leftist, has been ongoing for years, a courageous, painful and censored debate on the "how" the Vatican hierarchy use the money eight per thousand "to truncate and quell dissent in the Church . One of the best examples is the pamphlet "church lady" by Roberto Beretta, writer and journalist of the future, the bishops' newspaper. Under the heading "The other side of eight per thousand", Beretta observes: "Who manages the money of eight per thousand won an enormous power, which also has important implications ecclesial and theological. "He continues:" As a bishop for example - knowing that she will have to use the CEI for the money to arrange a workshop or repair Cathedral - never raise his hand in a general meeting to challenge the positions of president? "." And in fact - the author claims - only that in Italy you can talk frankly are some of the bishops emeriti, retired, or those who have nothing to lose ...". A browse through the records of cultural conferences and the pages of "church lady", completely rejected the Catholic and received from publishing religious bookstores, of course that the criticism of the "direct" and use "ideological" eight per thousand of the universe is not at all believers. Of course, there are "retired bishops", by Carlo Maria Martini, now a voluntary exile in Jerusalem, Giuseppe Casale, former archbishop of Foggia, which describes the new course: "The bishops no longer speak, waiting for input from the top ... When they consult all the appointments of bishops, laity, priests, Monsignor, and then do what they want, that is, anyone except the name that was specified. " The above-mentioned Vittorio Messori has complained on several occasions "the blimp", "centralism" and "the excessive power achieved by the bureaucracy in the Church." Alfredo Carlo Moro lawyer and brother of Aldo, in a recent government intervention has launched a painful accusation: "We see now a serious shortage of debate in the Church, an impressive and resounding silence of the meetings of the CEI states that only what we know in principle the President, theologians speak only when they are perfectly in line, otherwise remain silent. " The church of twenty years ago, one in which Camillo Ruini began his ascent, he has no money to pay employees of the CEI, with finances shaken by scandal and drained by the support of Solidarity. Catholic culture feels ridiculed by the hegemony of the left, ignored by secular newspapers, expelled from the world of commercial TV hedonistic, even in small minority in Rai riformata. Eppure è una Chiesa ancora viva, anzi vitalissima. Tanto pluralista da ospitare nel suo seno mille voci, dai teologi della liberazione agli ultra tradizionalisti seguaci di monsignor Lefebrve. Capace di riconoscere movimenti di massa, come Comunione e Liberazione, e di "scoprire" l'antimafia, con le omelie del cardinale Pappalardo, il lavoro di don Puglisi a Brancaccio, l'impegno di don Italo Calabrò contro la 'ndrangheta. Dopo vent'anni di "cura Ruini" la Chiesa all'apparenza scoppia di salute. È assai più ricca e potente e ascoltata a Palazzo, governa l'agenda dei media e influisce sull'intero quadro politico, da An a Rifondazione, non più soltanto su uno. Nelle apparizioni televisive il clero è secondo only the political class. They boast huge crowds at rallies Catholics, the multiplication of saints and shrines, the record audience of religious-themed fiction. The dissenting voices have disappeared. Yet churches and vestries are emptied, the crisis of vocations in two decades has reduced from 60 to 39 thousand priests, the religious sacraments like marriage and baptism are decreasing. The clergy is the victim dell'illusoria media equation "Visibility equals consent," as his twin separated, the political class. In real life, indeed the danger of terrible prophecy launched thirty years ago by a progressive theologian: "The Church is becoming for many the main obstacle to faith. They can no longer see it as nothing more than the human ambition of power, the small theater of men who, with their claim to administer the official Christianity, seem mostly to hinder the true spirit of Christianity. "That theologian named Joseph Ratzinger.
Other articles on the subject Republic of
0 comments:
Post a Comment