It was not only church property that was confiscated, but the tithe was abolished.

A large part of the tithe had been impropriated by religious houses, as the titular rectors of parishes (the actual duty being done by a substitute or vicar), or even by lay titulars, but this was always subject to a stipend, payable to the parish minister of the parish from which they were drawn.

The church tax was intended to replace this on a more equitable basis than the tithe, which fell exclusively on landowners, for a tenant would adjust the rent he was prepared to pay accordingly.

“The bottom line is that German Catholics buy the Sacraments (simony) since it is not a free will donation.”

So what do the other traditions buy? Do Lutherans only get two Sacraments instead of seven? Do those of the Jewish Faith receive none?

@ Graham Combs
“I continue to find progressivism pitiless and cruel to those who have done nothing to deserve its harsh judgements and its arrogrant appropriation of power and wages.”

Amen. It always amuses me how arbitrary and capricious the state golden calves really become once the grandeloquent initiation and dedication speeches are memory, and the coarse decrees and dictates of operation become inescapable. I’ll argue that “progressiveism”, is nothing more than statism, and a violation of the Commandent regarding the holding of strange gods.

As for the German Bishop’s statement:

”There must be consequences for people who distance themselves from the church by a public act . . . At issue . . . is the credibility of the church’s sacramental nature. One cannot be half a member or only partly a member. Either one belongs and commits, or one renounces this.”

If, in the spirit of international collegiality this was ever to be adopted by the USCCG and become U.S. policy, could we (finally) see the excommunication of the Bidens and Pelosis and the other CINOs that inhabit the American polity?

The German gov’t collects the so called “church tax” because the German gov’t of 1803-1804 nationalized property and buildings rightfully belonging to the Catholic church.

And instead of just returning the seized property to the Church, the German gov’t in effect became the “donations collector” for the Catholic church, forcing every Catholic to identify themselves as such to the gov’t for the purposes of being assessed a 8-9% tax. (oh and the German gov’t takes about 3% of what it collects for administrative costs. Gee, I wonder why the German gov’t has no interest in getting grid of this system?)

This is a bureaucratic issue, not a faith issue. yes, the bishops have a point in that requesting to be unlabeled as a Catholic is a serious offense but only in the context of this slightly bizarre gov’t system that forces its citizen to officially register in a religion.

A system that the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, France, Mexico, Brazil, and even Italy (the home of the Vatican!) do not have.

If I want to be a German Catholic, I must pay what they dictate to be my subscription fee. This is WRONG and the World is right to mock us for it.

Current income to Catholic Church from this church tax is about $6B per year.

I’ll comment, since I believe we should be taxed for some things, but not to do what charity and generosity should be doing. I’d be opposed to the German tax and the bishops who support it.

Taxation for social services undermines the core Christian principles of charity and responsibility that not only provide for the poor, but form relationships of love between strangers, and save souls. The bishops are correct in pointing out the obligation of Catholics to support the institutions they use and benefit from, but they are wrong in defending the State tax.

At one point Henry’s bill and Jefferson’s bill for religious freedom were before the legislature at the same time. At Colonial Williamsburg they actually have their Henry and Jefferson interpreters re-create a mock “debate” over their bills every April. Well worth seeing if you’re nearby.

We find an an ordinance made by Charlemagne as King of the Franks, in a general assembly of his Estates, spiritual and temporal, in 778-779, “Concerning tithes, it is ordained that every man give his tithe, and that they be dispensed according to the bishop’s commandment.”
A Capitular for Saxony in 789 appointed tithes to be paid out of all public property, and that all men, “whether noble, or gentle, or of lower degree,” should “give according to God’s commandment, to the churches and priests, of their substance and labour : as God has given to each Christian, so ought he to repay a part to God.”
A Capitular of 800 made the payment of tithes universal within the fiscal domain of the whole Frankish kingdom.
From this time onwards, therefore, we may say the civil law superseded any merely spiritual admonitions as to the payment of tithes. Their payment was no longer a religious duty alone; it was a legal obligation, enforceable by the laws of the civil head of Christendom.