Well, it seems the new government expects everyone to do their part in getting Italy out of its current economic straits – except, you guessed it, the Catholic Church. When asked a direct question on the subject, PM Mario Monti reportedly answerd that “he hadn’t yet considered” making the outlandishly privileged Church pay tax on its commercial assets (an estimated 1 out of 5 properties in Italy are in Church hands). Which is outrageous. Really, the list of offenses just gets longer and longer. Why should anyone be this privileged – above all the richest (and arguably most corrupt and morally bankrupt) country – yes, it’s another fucking country! – on Earth? Can anyone explain to me why those of us who oppose such privileges haven’t yet reached a critical mass?
There’s a new website (icostidellachiesa.it) detailing the actual cost of the Catholic Church. It’s a frightening read. And since most Italians have absolutely no idea how they are financing this freeloading institution, the time has come to educate them. This is the elephant in the room, Italy.
Marc Di Martino 
How much is that in American dollars, do you know?
I’m not sure, maybe somewhere around 8 or 9 billion! Just imagine Italy practically supports the Vatican, whose “citizens” have an average annual income of around 400,000 euro. And we’re in full crisis mode.
That’s about right. I plugged the numbers into a currency converter, and 6,086,565,703 Euros is approximately $8,147,704,452.20 U.S.
Yikes!
The majority of Italians of my acquaintance cannot be classified as believers, although some still go through the ritualistic motions of Roman Catholic indoctrination just because it is “tradition” – despicably lame, especially when it involves that vile institution frantically attempting to brainwash innocent children with ignorant claptrap. However, despite often professing their contempt of the Catholic church, very few of them seem to contemplate trying to cast off the moralising and financial shackles. Still prisoners of the hype, despite their disillusion…
Grazie, Marc.
Truth is that lots of people in Italy do know and oppose this shameful situation, but they are not enough. And even if they were, it wouldn’t be any easy or quick to get rid of it and I am sure you know what I am talking about. This goes much deeper than a “simple” unfair taxation, this goes back to centuries of tight relationships between Mafia, Massoneria and Catholic Church.
Anyway, the real problem, again, is that people who dislike this system are many, but not enough. I am sure you too know how good the average Italian is at complaining: at least as bad as (s)he is at acting. If Italians really wanted to bring about a change, they would had not allowed what happened that week of about a a month ago when Berlusconi resigned and the ECB replaced him with Monti (a Goldman Sachs guy and member of the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission!!) . That was another shame! In the last 5 years I had witnessed lots of small movements growing and really believed a new “renaissance” could happen, but I was wrong.
Too many in Italy do not really want to change the status quo, because they are too used to think that they can benefit from it (‘na mazzettina qua e lá, ‘na telefonatina del vescovo che ti trova il “posto”,….)
I am deeply disappointed and start to think that, after all, that’s just how Italians are.