Saturday, September 23, 2006

Spain ends subsidy to church


Zappatero's govenment has shown itself hostile to so much that the Church stands for, especially the traditional family. He is increasingly trying to push it to the sidelines, this seems to be yet another attack.


MADRID The Spanish government said Friday that it would no longer offer a direct subsidy to the Catholic Church, adding to a deepening divide between religious conservatives and the governing Socialist Party.
Details of the move were outlined Friday by María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, the deputy prime minister.
The church would still receive government funding, because taxpayers would still be allowed to direct a percentage of their taxes each year to the church. But the government would no longer add to the amount allotted by taxpayers to guarantee a minimum level of state financing for the church.
In exchange for the elimination of the direct subsidy, the government said it would increase the maximum percentage that taxpayers can contribute from 0.52 percent to 0.7 percent.
The proposal also calls for eliminating the church's exemption from the value-added tax, a move requested by the European Union.
The Spanish government has funded the Catholic Church under technically temporary agreements since the death of General Francisco Franco in 1975.
The church receives about €135 million, or $170 million, a year from the government. The direct subsidy that is to be eliminated accounts for about €30 million. Spain's Conference of Catholic Bishops would not comment on the announcement.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

No wonder. The Spanish Socialist Party, like its counterparts in Portugal, Italy, Belgium and France, is but the glove-puppet of Grand Orient Freemasonry.

Anonymous said...

What? We'll have the Protocols of the Elders of Zion next.

Anonymous said...

Michael what evidence do you have for that?
Can't you just accept that Spain has a secular government and sees the Church for what it is, the only force in Europe that is a credible alternative to secularism and therefore inimicable to both socialism and capitalism (Spain of course has always had a tradition of anti-clericalism). The great difference is of course that Capitalist regimes tend not to attack the Church's teaching on the family. However what the Pope has been saying about copnsumerism might well provoke a similar reaction.

Anonymous said...

Did you choose the most evil pic of Zappy you could find?

Anonymous said...

Paul, I don't have the evidence at my fingertips, but it's gleaned from many different sources.

One example is Stephen Knight's book "The Brotherhood", in which he mentions that Jacques Miterrand (President Miterrand's brother) was Grand Master of the French Grand Orient.

And Martin: Protocols, shmotocols! Beware of sounding ridiculous!

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