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Comment by looping__lui | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think stuff abroad is owned by the Vatican unless it is a deliberate investment. I might be wrong, but my perception was rather that “the catholic church is operating like a franchise in which each country does as they please”. The Catholic Church in Germany is insanely rich for example. I doubt they share anything with anybody…

In Germany, they get paid for the schools and hospitals (95% or so of operating expenses are covered by the government/etc in return for zero say; e.g., for a 5% share in expenses for operating a school they get to make 100% of the rules). It’s even more crazy with hospitals where they can essentially deny to provide services they don’t want to offer for “ethical reasons” or not hire “non-Catholics”. Again: this is 95% paid by the public…

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Vatican Church uses the Archdioceses in a number of countries practically as subsidiaries to acquire land holdings. That land is used for Church activities, or actively managed by the Archdiocese, with the Vatican playing a passive investor. I was told this by a church Cardinal (incidentally a German one). And this practice has become especially common in the developing world.

In Germany that is paid for with the Church tax, so it's paid by Catholics and not Germans in general.

I don't think that's correct. The church tax goes directly to the church, not into state coffers. The salaries of bishops and priests, however, are paid directly by the state.

In addition to that Germany is still paying reparations for land that was expropriated from the church in the early 19th century, at a tune of half a billion Euros per year, for eternity.

If you speak German, this is an informative read: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchenfinanzierung

I talked about hospitals, kindergardens or schools under church operation. The government / public pays for that for the biggest part. I as a German tax payer also pay for the salaries of bishops etc. Not to me to mention religious mass festivals like “Kirchentag”: 50+% paid for by German citizens. The German church is collecting it’s “church tax” through the German IRS. And here is some fun fact: the burden of proof that you have left the church (if they happen to find out your parents baptised you) is on the individual. So, assuming that your parents had you baptised you will be liable for church taxes for the rest of your life unless you go to city hall and have it documented. The Catholic tax authority by law only is responsible to keep record of the notice that you left church for 10 years and can then demand (until the rest of your life) that you show a legal proof of having left the church. Happened to me. As a baby - you get baptised without consent. The Catholic church in Germany surely enough hunts you down for taxes until you die. In Eastern Germany there are often no good records - hence the church often forces a negotiated “settlement”.

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