There Are Growing Calls to Finally Tax the Catholic Church
A mayor in Canada wants to tax the Catholic Church as a result of its role in Canada’s assimilative residential school system—a role currently in the spotlight as more unmarked gravesites at former Catholic-run residential schools are confirmed across the country.
Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell’s plan seeks to remove a land tax exemption that churches enjoy.
The Roman Catholic Church hasn’t disclosed its net worth. But there’s no doubt it is one of the richest institutions on the planet, considering it’s one of the largest landowners in the world, and enjoys significant investments, and coffers full of gold and priceless original art. The Vatican, which is just a fraction of the Church, is worth $4 billion.
More than half of residential schools were run by Catholics. Sweeping abuses were common, and children were routinely punished for speaking their languages and expressing their cultures. Malnutrition and disease were also widespread, and thousands of children were killed.
In Canada, churches and religious groups enjoy similar tax exemptions to charities for providing a public good. But as Alberta Views Magazine reported, churches don’t need to hit the same standards the many charities and nonprofits do—churches, by nature, can discriminate based on religion.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7ep4x/t...lic-church
A mayor in Canada wants to tax the Catholic Church as a result of its role in Canada’s assimilative residential school system—a role currently in the spotlight as more unmarked gravesites at former Catholic-run residential schools are confirmed across the country.
Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell’s plan seeks to remove a land tax exemption that churches enjoy.
The Roman Catholic Church hasn’t disclosed its net worth. But there’s no doubt it is one of the richest institutions on the planet, considering it’s one of the largest landowners in the world, and enjoys significant investments, and coffers full of gold and priceless original art. The Vatican, which is just a fraction of the Church, is worth $4 billion.
More than half of residential schools were run by Catholics. Sweeping abuses were common, and children were routinely punished for speaking their languages and expressing their cultures. Malnutrition and disease were also widespread, and thousands of children were killed.
In Canada, churches and religious groups enjoy similar tax exemptions to charities for providing a public good. But as Alberta Views Magazine reported, churches don’t need to hit the same standards the many charities and nonprofits do—churches, by nature, can discriminate based on religion.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7ep4x/t...lic-church
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"