Yes, I know, I promised you and myself to stop writing about this silly "Evangelii Gaudium".."But I cannot help myself. It just about challenges a man to comment on its audacity and frivolous arguments.
Franciscus, in paragraph 56 speaks of
"wide spread corruption and self serving tax evasion."...
Surely this is a most typical case of the kettle calling the pot black.
How can the Pope speak of the corruption of others, when his own institution, the R.C. Church has one scandal after the other washing over its spiritual and financial shores?
The transfer of Priests found to have sexually molested children entrusted to them, to other parishes speaks of a spiritual corruption not only of the perpetrator, but also of the highest echelon and finally of the entire institution. The former Pope, Benedict XVI, by "Apostolic Letter" issued instructions that matters of "child abuse" were not to be reported to the Authorities, but were to be dealt with in private, subject to "pontifical secret" (see this Blog, entry 12th Sept.2013).
If this is not corruption of the Highest Order, I truly do not know what is..
It is surely akin to a Bank President, issuing a direction that an embezzling Branch Manager is not to be reported to the Police, but is to be transferred to another branch.
Spiritual corruption within the Catholic Church is indeed rampant.
But what about financial corruption ?
The Financial Times, in its issue of December 6th 2013 reports the arrest on June 28 of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, (nick named "Monsignore Cinquecento" alluding to the fact that the Monsignore habitually carried 500 Euro bank notes.)
Scarano was caught with two other men attempting to transport 20 Million Euros by private plane from Switzerland to Italy. All three declared themselves innocent of any wrong doing, and, as befits a democratic state must be thought of as innocent until proven guilty.
The trio Scarano et al was charged with Fraud and Corruption, in matters also involving sacral financial institutions like: Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan and UniCredit, all working with the Vatican Bank, who, by the way in a hypocritical move that seeks its equal, calls itself "The Institute for Religious Work."
In case you may think that all of this is a "sign of the times" let me remind you of Roberto Calvi. the late chairman of the collapsed Banco Ambrosio, a Bank of which the Vatican Bank (the Institute for Religious work) was the major shareholder. Calvi was found in 1982 hanged from London's Black Friar bridge.
Who ordered his death? The Mafia? Or somebody who did not like to be "the major shareholder" of a collapsed Bank? There are other examples, too numerous to mention, of the total spiritual collapse of this institution.
As I mentioned above, this Exhortation also speaks of "self serving tax evasion."
While for total lack of evidence, I do not accuse the Catholic Church of "Tax Evasion", I most certainly and without fear of contradiction, accuse them of "Tax Avoidance".... And for the .coffers of the state, charged with looking after the affairs of ALL its citizens, it really makes no difference if these hundreds of millions of Euros are evaded or avoided.
How does it come about that the Vatican pays little or no taxes?
It's the Concordats, my dear, the Concordats:
A Concordat is an agreement between the Vatican and the secular Government of a country, to regulate the affairs of the Church within said Country, including the payment, or non-payment of taxes.. Since the Vatican also is a "Country" it makes such a Concordat an "international agreement" which can only be broken by mutual consent.
The Concordat in many countries, including Italy, stipulates that no taxes or only a fraction of the regular tax are payable on any property part of which is used for non-commercial purposes.
So, the Vatican boys are smart boys, you know!
They bought, for instance, a luxury Hotel in downtown Rome or anywhere else, they quickly built a little chapel, or in a shopping plaza they erected in an out of the way corner a little niche with a statue of Holy Mary and "abra-cadabra" the tax collector went home empty handed.
It is estimated that through such immoral, unethical, underhanded manipulations the country of Italy looses up to two billion Euros per year. The City of Rome alone goes without an estimated 25.5 Million annual Euros.
Some of the most beautiful hotels, Shopping facilities and other properties are owned by the Vatican in the choicest downtown areas of Rome and enjoy a tax free operation.
AND THIS MAN HAS THE AUDACITY TO SPEAK OF "WIDE SPREAD CORRUPTION AND SELF SERVING TAX EVASION:
There is probably no Institution more corrupt and avoids/evades more taxes than the Holy See.
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