The Catholic Church, Incorporated

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The Catholic Church, Incorporated

Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit

Counterpunch - Nov 17, 2007

http://www.counterpunch.org/volpi11172007.html

The Catholic Church, Incorporated

"My House Shall be a House of Business"

By VALERIO VOLPI

"Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in

selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money

changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to

them, "It is written: 'My house shall be a house of prayer,' but you

are making it a den of thieves" (Matthew 21:12).

Organized pilgrimages (tours) to Lourdes, the Holy Land or Rome; hotels

and restaurants ready to host and feed pilgrims, absolutely NOT free of

charge; shops selling holy water, crucifixes or John Paul II or

Benedict XVI postcards (buy them, the Pope personally blessed them!);

hospitals, bookstores and universities. Billions of whatever currency

you want flowing into the coffers of the Catholic Church (henceforth,

CC) with the promise of a better post-mortem future.

What is the CC, then?

To be intellectually honest, we must acknowledge the work of thousands

of priests and nuns, who, though not always challenging the real causes

of poverty, nevertheless live in real deprivation, in difficult areas

of the world, really devoting their daily existence to helping the poor

and the hungry, often giving their lives for their brothers (think of

the priests working and dying in Latin America, Asia or Africa; or,

without going too far, those killed in southern Italy by the Mafia).

However, who holds the reins of power is not the Amazonian priest or

Indian nun. Real power lies within Vatican hierarchy and national

Episcopal Conferences (CEI for Italy), that is the Vatican's (business)

arm in all countries of the world.

It is true that we should not confuse the Vatican and the CC. The

Vatican is a sovereign, independent State, with its own king, the Pope.

Episcopal Conferences are the Vatican's tentacles.

In the end, what distinguishes the CC from a gigantic corporation? Very

little, I would say. Probably nothing. Just like a corporation, it

wields enormous political and economic power and lobbies Parliaments to

get economic favors, such as tax breaks or state funds. However, as not

all countries' political institutions are influenced by corporations at

the same degree, the same can be said about the CC. It would be

interesting to analyze, therefore, the situation of the country where

the CC wields the most power in the world, Italy.

Italy is an amazing country: though officially independent from the

Vatican, it is actually not. Most of TV news time is daily devoted to

the Pope, whether it is his homily, his vacation on the Italian Alps or

at his Castel Gandolfo residence (another example of apostolic

poverty), or even his anathema against those Italian politicians,

elected by the (at least according to the Constitution) sovereign

Italian people, who dare oppose the word of the CC, for example, on

abortion, gay or even unmarried heterosexual couples' rights, on

euthanasia, on the removal of crucifixes from public hospital, tribunal

and school walls (you may not believe this, but they are still there).

It is also a country where many politicians of both coalitions (and

particularly those who, in British parliamentary terminology, we would

call front-benchers, that is, top ones) are always ready to genuflect

before the Vatican's high or low hierarchies.

Particularly puzzling is the case of supposedly progressive

politicians, who act the opposite way. Unforgettable remains Massimo

D'Alema's visit to St. Peter's Square for the sanctification of

Monsignor Escriv de Balaguer, Opus Dei founder, a collaborator of

Spanish Fascist dictator Francisco Franco and an admirer of Pinochet,

praised by D'Alema for his "managerial" banking skills (another very

Christian activity).

However, even better is current Vice-Prime Minister Francesco Rutelli's

story, blinded on his way to Damascus, in one of the most astonishing

examples of personal religious (and political) conversion: in his youth

member of the Radical Party (that is, the most anticlerical bunch of

people around, who led furious battles against the CC and the Christian

Democrats in the 1970s for people's right to abortion and divorce);

then MP for the Green Party (not very soft on the CC either); then

Mayor of Rome for the Center-Left coalition, office which allowed him,

amongst many things, to manage the enormous amount of public money

devolved to the city of Rome for the 2000 Jubilee; and now, after

re-marrying his wife in church in 1995, definitely one of Italy's chief

theo-cons, one of the most stalwart supporters of U.S. militarism, and

CC diktats on abortion, gay rights, euthanasia and so forth and so on.

Thanks to such subservience on the part of Italy's top politicians, the

CC enjoys economic privileges which sound outrageous for all those

Italians who regularly pay their taxes, and see them going not to

healthcare, education, or the environment, but, rather, into the

coffins of an entity representing a minority of the Italian people. As

a matter of fact, if Catholics are officially 91,1% of the people (even

people like me are considered in that percentage), people who actually

attend masses weekly are around 30%.

So, how have we got to this point?

"Libera Chiesa in Libero Stato": "A Free Church in a Free State". This

principle, envisaging a perfect separation between the new-born Italian

nation and the Catholic Church, was enounced by Camillo Benso Count of

Cavour, the first Prime Minister of (not completely) united Italy,

during several speeches to the new Italian Parliament between March and

April 1861. It is a principle completely forgotten in today's Italy,

even though it has been remarked by the Constitutional Court, in art. 4

of sentence 203 of 1989, that secularism is a "supreme principle of the

State".

Now, Cavour's statement, together with massive confiscations of Church

properties that had been taking place between 1848 and 1870, were

probably instrumental to the political situation of the time. After

all, art. 1 of the Albertine Statute, that is, the Constitution of the

Sardinian Kingdom, extended to the rest of Italy after unification,

stated, after all, that "La Religione Cattolica, Apostolica e Romana

la sola Religione dello Stato. Gli altri culti ora esistenti sono

tollerati conformemente alle leggi." That is, the CC was the only

religion of the State, and other existing cults were tolerated in

accordance with the law. It might seem that, because of such provision,

the CC should enjoy preferential treatment and therefore not undergo

anything damaging, let alone confiscations.

However, it should be remembered that, when Cavour died in 1861, Rome

and its surrounding region, Lazio, where still under papal rule. Pope

Pius IX was, therefore, the sovereign of a much larger State than the

one Popes rule today, that is, Vatican City. Therefore, anything

leading to the weakening of CC temporal power was more than welcome.

Thus, argued Cavour, not only was the presence of such temporal power

in contradiction with "those concessions required by the times and

progress of civilization" (for example, non-religious weddings or

secular education), that is "those whose tolerance is by now

acknowledged as necessary", whose existence "however clashes with

religious positive precepts"; so was even the presence of a state

Religion, whose existence would make it impossible to enforce such

"concessions", as the Prime Minister from Piedmont called them.

Once Rome was conquered, on 20 September 1870, the Italian Parliament

passed the so called "legge delle Guarentigie" on 13 May 2007, in order

to regulate the new status quo. In spite of its generosity, as it

guaranteed the Pope's inviolability and regal status; his power to have

diplomatic delegations; endowed him with the Vatican, the Lateran

Palace and Castel Gandolfo, which were granted extra-territoriality;

supplied him with 3,250,000 lire annually to support himself, his

palaces and the High Clergy; and exempted bishops from swearing

allegiance to the King and allowed unlimited freedom of assembly, it

was nevertheless turned down by Pius IX, who regarded the new law as an

Italian unilateral act (he even invoked the help of German Chancellor

Otto Von Bismarck, who was a Lutheran, imagine that).

Then, the Pope issued the "Ubi nos" encyclical, which sanctioned the

impossibility to separate temporal and spiritual powers, and then went

on to prohibit Catholics' participation to political life in 1874

(principle gradually abandoned during Giolitti's age), through the "non

expedit" ("it is not convenient") formula. In response to the Pope's

attitude, the government, prodded by the anticlerical Left, shut down

all Theology faculties and put seminaries under state control. Besides,

the Coppino Act, passed on 15 July 1877, which made the first three

years of grammar school compulsory (that is, for children aged between

six and nine), cancelled the compulsory teaching of religion within

compulsory education.

It was with Mussolini, whom then Pope Pius XI defined, on 14 February

1929, as "the man Providence allowed us to meet", that the issue was

solved. After all, the dictator strongly needed CC support to tighten

his grip over the Italian society. On 11 February 1929 the Vatican and

the Italian State acknowledged each other through the signing of the

two Lateran Pacts, the first one of which created the Vatican State and

granted it large compensations; and the second one, in the form of a

Concordat, which regulated the relations between Italy and the CC (not

the Vatican State): it required bishops to swear loyalty to the Italian

government (with the exception of the cardinal vicar, as this member of

the clergy is the representative of the "real" bishop of Rome, that is

the Pope, therefore in observance of the Pope's independence from

Italy), declared the Catholic religion state religion (and made its

teaching compulsory in schools), and committed the government to exempt

the clergy from national military service and adapt marriage and

divorce laws to those in force for the Church. Furthermore, the Italian

state pledged to pay for Catholic priests' stipends.

The Lateran Pacts were then acknowledged by the Italian Republican

Constitution of 1946 (art. 7.2), also thanks to the Communist Party,

and with the opposition of Socialists and members of the Action Party.

This does not mean that they can be considered as constitutional

provisions: they are an atypical source of law (Constitutional Court,

verdict 31/1971), more "resistant" than ordinary Acts of Parliament

(which can be modified by following Acts), but still subjected to the

supreme principles of the Italian constitutional system. They require

the agreement between the Vatican and the Italian Republic for any

modification. Otherwise, the State may unilaterally modify them only by

amending the Constitution.

The former procedure was the one used in 1984. The new agreement

abolished the concept of "State religion", and, since the number of

priests (and therefore the amount of money the CC would get paid for

them) was quickly decreasing, it also provided that citizens might

earmark part of their IRPEF (Personal Income Tax) for the CC (or

different cult with which the Italian Republic has signed agreements,

such as, for example, the Valdese, the Lutherans, the Jews) in the

amount of 0.8% (the so-called "otto per mille"), according to Act 222

of 1985. Nothing scandalous, some would say, with citizens deciding

where to allocate their tax money, even though the Italian Constitution

states (art. 7) that "State and catholic church are, each within their

own reign, independent and sovereign". This clearly implies that such

independence should not just be political and legal, but also economic.

However, such mechanism is devised in such a way that a lot more money

than the amount freely allocated finds its way into the CC's coffers,

as we will see later. And this is just one of the many fiscal favors

and subsidies the CC enjoys and we pay for nowadays. ICI (Council Tax)

and IRES (Corporate Income Tax) exemptions are so absurd that they

currently are under EU scrutiny for violation of rules on state

subsidies and competition. And, as we will see later, the "progressive"

government currently in charge has done nothing to correct the

situation.

Ah, we miss those nineteen-century liberals (liberals in the

continental European meaning)! Never, ever could we expect something

like these past events to happen again!

Today, the CC wields more power than ever. As one of Italy's two

masters (the other being the U.S.), the CC is more than ever stifling

the country with its never-ending presence, maybe not so much on the

territory (because of a crisis in vocations to priesthood), as in the

media (how could we forget the non-stop live coverage of John Paul's

agony?), in Parliament and government, continuously lobbied or called

to order whenever the CC deems orthodoxy has been profaned, as in the

case of DICOs, a sort of watered-down version of French PACS (the bill,

by the way, still lies abandoned in Parliament after vehement CC and

Vatican protests).

Unfortunately, such irritating interference in the work of the

political institutions of a sovereign nation does not limit itself to

"moral" principles; it extends to economic privileges, paid for by all

tax-payers.

Such privileges, directed mainly to the CC, extend in some cases to the

Vatican as well. As reminded by Silvio Manzati in his report to the

national convention on secularism held in Verona on 14 October 2006,

art. 6.1 of the Lateran Treaty provided that Italy would supply water

to the Vatican, without specifying whether that would be free of charge

or not. Of course, continues Manzati, quoting a L'Espresso magazine

report of 2 November 2000, the Vatican has never paid a dime for yearly

consumptions of some 5 million liters, enough to quench the thirst of

60,000 people, but mostly used to water the lush Vatican gardens.

Manzati also reported that, up to the 1970s, Vatican and Rome sewage

would be dumped directly into the river Tiber. Then, the City of Rome

built depurators, used also by the Vatican, which has never paid a

single bill for it. In 1999, the Vatican owed the city of Rome 44

billion lire (that is, approximately 21.5 million euros). When Acea,

Rome's municipality-owned concern, was listed on the Stock Exchange,

shareholders claimed that money. The Treasury Ministry (that is,

Italian tax-payers) paid for the bills, on condition that the Vatican

would regularly pay the 2 million euros required every year for the

draining of sewage.

Of course, the Vatican has never paid for this. An amendment to the

2004 Budget introduced by Forza Italia (Berlusconi's party) senator

Mario Ferrara, which was then passed, allocated 25 million euros for

2004 and 4 million euros per year (beginning in 2005) to help the

Vatican create its own water system. Thus, tax payers donated a very

big amount of money to a "country" of 798 inhabitants, with a life

expectancy of 78 years, a per capita GDP of U.S. $25,500, and a 100%

literacy rate, according to National Geographic, which does not quite

qualify as "needy".

To this, it should be added that the Vatican owns priceless buildings,

which enjoy extraterritoriality: in Rome (among which, the Basilica of

St. John Lateran, the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the Basilica of St.

Paul outside the Walls, the Latern Palace and dozens more, including

colleges, universities and hospitals), as well as in the rest of Italy

(Castel Gandolfo and the Lake of Albano; the Pontifical Palace and

Villa Barberini in the town of Castel Gandolfo; the area of Santa Maria

di Galeria, where the antennas of Radio Vaticana are located).

Besides these buildings, the Vatican owns others, which do not enjoy

extraterritoriality, such as the Basilica of the Holy House in Loreto,

near the city of Ancona; the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, near

Perugia; and the Basilica of St Anthony in Padua.

We are not quite finished. The Vatican also owns the I.O.R., Istituto

per le Opere Religiose (Institute for Religious Works), better known as

Vatican Bank. The Vatican Bank became a true profitable bank only with

the Lateran Treaty, which redefined the canon sin of usury: no longer

simple money-lending, but rather, getting exorbitant profits out of it.

Mussolini donated the new Bank some $80 million to start business.

At any rate, the Bank has been carrying out some not very Christian

activities throughout its history.

It was involved, according to a 1998 U.S. State Department report, with

the Croatian Nazi collaborationist regime, whose treasure was illegally

transferred to several banks, including the Vatican one, after WW II.

It is also said to have managed U.S. secret funds to the Contras and to

have directly financed Solidarnosc in Poland.

The Bank got into deep trouble because of the Banco Ambrosiano $3.5

billion bankruptcy in 1982, of which it was a major share-holder. At

that time, Governor of the Bank was Paul Marcinkus, who was indicted in

1982 in Italy as an accessory of the bankruptcy. He was accused of

money laundering activities for the mafia and Propaganda Due (P2), an

outlawed masonic lodge, led by neofascist Licio Gelli, who worked with

GLADIO. Marcinkus was considered immune from prosecution by Italian

courts, and never stood trial in Italy.

Though claiming its innocence, the Bank acknowledged its "moral

involvement" and paid $241 million dollars in damages. That was a

terrible blow to Vatican finances. But then came the managerial skills

of Cardinal Ruini, who became secretary of CEI in 1986, and then

chairman in 1991; and the "otto per mille" in 1985.

The Vatican Bank had invested by the end of the 1990s more than $10

billion in foreign companies. It works just like a normal corporate

bank: it is run by a professional CEO, responsible before a committee

of cardinals, and ultimately the Pope (or the Cardinal Camerlengo

during an interregnum).

What would Jesus Christ say?

And, finally, I would like to mention Radio Vaticana, the "voice" of

the Vatican. According to a report issued by the Public Health Agency

of the Region of Lazio in March 2001, people living around the radio

transmitting pylons are six times more likely to develop leukemia than

the national average. Children between 0 and 14 are the most affected.

These pylons are about 60 in number, and are 10 meters tall. They do

not have to comply with Italian regulations on radiation emissions, as

they are deemed extraterritorial, and the amount of radiations they

give out is approximately twice higher than the one allowed by Italian

law, as officially verified by the Italian Civil Defense and the

Environment Department of the Region of Lazio.

The Vatican has always claimed its freedom to do as it pleases thanks

to the Lateran Treaty. That is, its freedom to poison the people,

especially children. What would Jesus Christ say?

Now, let us move on to the CC.

First of all, it should be noticed that there is not one single year,

in which the Italian Paliament has not granted some sort of economic

favor to the CC. For example, the 2004 Budget allocated 20 million

euros for 2004 and 30 million for 2005 to the Bio-medical Campus

University, managed by Opus Dei; the 2005 Budget allocated 15 million

euros for Saint Raphael of Mount Tabor Center, managed by Don Luigi

Verz (a priest); Act of Parliament 293 of 23 October 2003 legally

acknowledged the St. Pius V Institute for Political Studies, which was

allocated 1.5 million euros annually. All this, in a country where

there is never any money for research and researchers have to move

abroad, as pointed out by Manzati.

Besides, thanks to the Concordat, the State pays for the 35,000

religion teachers, for a cost, in 2004, of 478 million euros, as

reported by Piergiorgio Odifreddi, mathematician, author of best-seller

"Perch© non possiamo essere cristiani (e meno che mai cattolici)[Why we

cannot be Christian, let alone Catholic], Longanesi, 2007; and of 650

million euros in 2006, according to Curzio Maltese, journalist of La

Repubblica (see I conti della Chiesa: ecco quanto ci costa [CC's

accounts: here is how much it costs us], 28 September 2007).

It is interesting, however, that, though these teachers are paid their

salaries by the state, they are nevertheless chosen by bishops amongst

non-sinners (divorcees, for example, are not fit for the job),

therefore not through public competition as the Constitution states. In

August 2003, the Berlusconi government, supported by the center of the

then center-left opposition, pushed the bill which would give permanent

jobs to 15,507 new religion teachers, who were granted preferential

treatment in comparison to thousands of other subjects' teachers, still

waiting for a full-time position. And, we may ask, why hire permanently

people teaching a non-compulsory subject, such as religion? This

masterpiece, however, was completed by Act of Parliament 27/2006, which

states that all religion teachers who have worked for more than six

years with yearly contracts are not only entitled to three auotomatic

wage raises (2.5% each, for an overall 7.5%); and, once they win a

public competition and become full-time teachers, they will not have to

start again from the lowest salary, but will preserve their raises.

This rule, obviously, does not apply to other subjects' teachers with

the same working age.

Furthermore, the Constitution prohibits the public financing of private

schools with public funds (art. 33). However, dozens of tricks have

been devised in order to dodge this annoying provision. One of these is

school vouchers, for example.

It is interesting to notice how support for such infamous "donations"

is absolutely bipartisan.

In 1999, then Leftist Education Minister Luigi Berlinguer issued two

decrees (261 of 1998 and 279 of 1999), allowing grants to officially

certified secondary schools. In 2000 (Massimo D'Alema was Prime

Minister), Act of Parliament 62/2000 officially certified private

schools, which, from that moment on, had to be treated just like state

ones. The Act created school vouchers for 300 billion lire (the

equivalent of about 150 million euros). In 2005, the decree (n. 27)

signed by Minister of Education Moratti (Berlusconi government) changed

the word "grants" into "participation to the expenses of officially

certified secondary schools".

In 2005, according to Ministerial Circular n. 38 of 22 March 2005,

contributions to non-state schools amounted to about 500 million euros;

school vouchers amounted to 353 euros per student for grammar schools,

420 euros for middle schools, and 564 for the first year of high school.

However, it should be noted that these are state vouchers. Some Italian

regions have created their own voucher systems. Since the national law

mentions no incompatibility, both financings can be claimed.

To this, it should be added that the State, Regions and local

authorities, because of an Act of Parliament of 1 August 2003, passed

with a bipartisan 404 votes in favor (as opposed to 19 against and 14

abstained) may grant the gratuitous loan of their real estates to

oratories; oratory facilities are exempted from ICI (Council Tax), and

local authorities' losses will be covered by the State (that is,

tax-payers) for a yearly amount of 2.5 million euros.

The State also pays for army and prison chaplains, for an amount of 8

million euros in 2004.

The State funds private hospitals, many of which are managed by the CC,

for a good slice of the 1.5 billion euros allocated to health care.

According to above mentioned Curzio Maltese, CC schools and hospitals

cost us an overall 700 million euros yearly.

Act of Parliament 10 of 28 January 1977 created so-called urbanization

burdens, divided into primary and secondary. These burdens imply that

all those who build or restore something have to pay a sort of tax to

city authorities, in order to share the burden cities bear to improve

urbanization.

Urbanization burdens are divided into primary (concerning, for example,

the sewerage and water systems) and secondary (for example, for

schools). Now, cities must pay 8% of what they receive for secondary

burdens to the CC.

The Italian State also finances religious events: the 2000 Jubilee

received the equivalent of 1,800,000,000 euros; the last Loreto meeting

received 2,5 million euros.

Let us move now to tax relief. First of all, it is important to

remember that, according to Odifreddi, the CC owns some 90,000

immovable properties (churches, oratories, convents, seminaries,

schools, hospitals, etc.), whose value could be estimated at around 30

billion euros.

Thanks to the law passed by Parliament in 1992, which created the ICI,

non-profit organizations, including religious ones (and therefore the

CC as well) are exempted from the payment of ICI on immovables used for

socially relevant activities. Not a big deal, according to Avvenire,

the CEI newspaper, and certainly the only case.

According to Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy's main economic newspaper, the

reality is very different.

First of all, as far as IRES is concerned, non-commercial

ecclesiastical charitable and educational institutions get a 50%

relief. However, when such institutions carry out both commercial and

religious activities, incomes need to be clearly separated. That is

because commercial incomes are supposed to pay IVA (VAT), with the

exception of schools and hospitals (that is, an enormous chunk of the

cake). Furthermore, Holy See properties rental incomes are exempted

from IRES, whereas exclusively religious and cemetery properties and

their fixtures are not considered as revenue-bearing, no matter who

owns them.

Secondly, IRAP (Regional Business Tax): stipends paid to priests are

IRAP-free, even though CC associations may deduct part of these

stipends in determining their corporate income.

Thirdly, IRPEF (Personal Income Tax): Holy See and Vatican employees

pay no IRPEF on their wages and pensions (even if they are legal

residents of Italy, which is obviously the rule, and therefore enjoy

all public services paid for by other Italian tax-payers).

Fourth, ICI, the most notorious case. It all started when a verdict by

the Italian Supreme Court of 8 March 2004 stated that an ecclesiastical

assistance center in L'Aquila, about 100 kms. east of Rome, had to pay

this tax, because its hosts would regularly pay their fees and

therefore the activity could not be considered as "non-commercial".

After vehement protests on the part of the CC and kneeling politicians,

the Berlusconi government attached a provision to the 2006 Budget,

exempting all CC real estates from ICI (and also those belonging to

other cults having agreements with the Italian State, though,

obviously, their size makes them immaterial).

The masterpiece was then completed by the "Bersani decree" of 4 July

2006, then turned into law by the Prodi government through Act of

Parliament 248 of 4 August 2006, officially in response to the European

Commission Competition Department investigation on the Italian

anomalous fiscal situation. The decree cancelled the ICI exemption for

CC and other cults' real estates wherein "exclusively commercial"

activities are carried out. It is very simple to understand, then, that

if one square meter of a CC bookstore, hotel or hospital is devoted to

an altar for prayer, the property might no longer be considered as

"exclusively commercial". Consider that the city of Rome alone loses

some twenty million euros a year thanks to Italian legislation.

According to Curzio Maltese, every year the Italian state loses between

400 and 700 million euros because of ICI exemptions; 500 million euros

because of IRAP, IRES and other tax exemptions; 600 million euros for

legal tax avoidance on the part of CC tourism organization, which takes

care of some 40 million pilgrims and tourists travelling from and to

Italy every year.

Are we done? Of course not.

I mentioned above the notorious 8 per mille (0.8%) mechanism. How does

it work?

Every year, Italian tax payers have to fill out their income-tax

return. In the form, there is a little box, with which to choose the

recipient of this 0.8% of a person's IRPEF. The choice is between the

State, the CC and a few other cults which have signed agreements with

the Italian State (for example, the Lutherans, the Valdese and the

Jews). Conspicuous by their absence are the Orthodox and the Muslims.

The reason for this is pretty obvious: the massive influx of immigrants

from Eastern Europe (notably Romania), mostly Orthodox; and the massive

immigration from predominantly Muslim African and Asian countries (such

as Morocco, Tunisia, Bangladesh etc.) would definitely harm CC

finances, should those immigrants decide to donate part of their IRPEF

to their own cult. No wonder the Italian State has never signed any

agreements with these cults.

Usually, in the weeks preceding the filling out of income-tax returns,

the Italian media are inundated with CC commercials, showing priests

working in poor countries, building schools, hospitals, etc. etc., to

the accompaniment of tear-jerking music. Then, all commercials end the

same way, that is, emphasizing the value of money donated to the CC

through the 0.8% mechanism.

However, in reality, only 8% of what the CC gets goes to the Third

World. Approximately 30% goes to priests' stipends; about 13% goes to

the building of new churches (with existing ones getting emptier day

after day), and so forth and so on.

The Valdese cult, on the other hand, devolves 94% of its meagre income

to charity, 6% to advertising, whereas pastors make ends meet through

devotees' donations. Even some CC priests have urged tax-payers to

donate their 0.8% to the Valdese Church, rather than the CC.

The State, on the contrary, does not advertise.

The amount devolved through the 0.8% mechanism is generally used to

relieve hunger in poor countries, assist refugees, for the preservation

of art and cultural heritage. When Minister Livia Turco proposed, back

in 1996, to use the money destined to the State to help underprivileged

children, the CEI treasurer Nicora replied harshly and argued that "the

State must not compete unfairly with the CC". Of course, the Italian

state has faithfully followed orders.

The 2004 budget (Berlusconi government), however, devolved 80 million

euros accruing from this mechanism for ordinary expenses. Part of this

money was used to finance the Iraq invasion. That certainly prevented

many people from donating their money to the State afterwards.

Now, if I pay, say, 5,000 euros of IRPEF and decide, for example, to

destine my 0,8% to the CC, the CC WILL NOT get 40 euros from me. The

State makes a different calculation: it calculates the entire IRPEF

amount, and then calculates the 0.8%. Then, it calculates the

percentage destined to each cult (or the State). Afterwards, it

calculates how much will go to each cult (or the State) according to

this percentage.

However, what happens if I "forget" to make a decision? Any normal

taxpayer would assume that the 0.8% would go to the State. It does not.

The part of IRPEF not destined to anybody is again redistributed

between 5 of the 7 possibilities (that is because the Assemblies of God

in Italy have refused to accept the money not coming from a direct tax

payer's choice (not so direct, as we have seen); and the Valdese

refused to do so until 2001, when their synod decided to accept it. The

agreement has been modified, but it still needs to be passed by

Parliament). This means that, since the CC usually gets around 87% of

preferences, the State around 10%, and the rest goes to the other cults

(whose percentage is therefore immaterial), the CC gets a lot more than

it is supposed to (that is, about one billion euros per year).

Furthermore, cults receive sums related to the income-tax return of

three years before, whereas the CC receives an advance of the amount

related to the current year (art. 47 of Act 222 of 1985).

Also, the same Act (art. 49) provides that the IRPEF percentage of 0.8%

may be modified by a joint government-CEI committee every three years

on the grounds of IRPEF income of previous years.

It should also be noted that, should the IRPEF rate be increased for

any reason, the CC would receive more funds, which are related to that

tax. So, should Italy be in financial trouble and raise Personal Income

Tax in order to balance the budget, with the effect of harming

citizens, the CC would instead be benefited by such an event.

What would Jesus Christ say? At this point, all we can think of is that

he must be crying on his Father's shoulder.

[Valerio Volpi is a PhD. student in Comparative Political Institutions

at the University of Bari. He lives in Rome and can be reached at:

vvolpi77@yahoo.it ]

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