I guess I’ll never stop getting baffled by the way the Catholic church handles things in Germany. Sometimes it gets so surreal that I have the feeling they haven’t stopped their hunt for witches.
My first issue with the church here was that I had to pay church tax. Church tax?! How come?! I had been a Catholic for 36 years in Brazil without having to pay for it!!! And why on earth does my employer have to know which religion I follow?! Just to make it clear, your tax declaration card, which has to be given to your employer, states your religion. Companies linked to the Catholic church use this knowledge while recruiting new employees, so applicants who are not in the church aren’t likely to get the job. What to call it if not discrimination? I’ve discussed that in another post (2011 – Middle Ages) about a divorced doctor who was fired from a Catholic hospital because he remarried.
Then I thought, Does it make any sense at all? If I don’t go to church, not even on Sundays or Christmas, why do I have to keep paying an amount which was not even established by me?! I do think people should at least be given the right and freedom to decide on how much!
I guess all this questioning was actually because I wasn’t raised in a very traditionally religious family. My parents themselves hardly ever go/went to church. But that doesn’t mean they don’t/didn’t have faith. They do/did, but they just don’t/didn’t think you have to be in church to pray or do good.
The most recent news related to the Catholic Church has been broadcasted this week. A man decided to contest the fact that he couldn’t remain a Catholic if he stopped paying church tax. The case went to court which stated that in order to be a Catholic, one must pay. No matter if you pray, no matter your attitudes — you pay, you’re in the “club”. Well, at least we can be sure the Catholic church won’t go bankrupt in the near future. However, the increasing number of people leaving the church makes it clear that things don’t seem to be alright! Here’s a link to the article: Deutsche Welle.