VATICAN CITY
New Europe
Pope Francis underlined that a convent that becomes a hotel after taking in refugees must lose its tax-exempt status.
The pope told Portuguese radio station Renascenza on Monday that “some congregations are saying: ‘No, now that the convent is empty we’ll turn it into hotel: we can receive (refugees) and that way we’ll get by and earn money’.” The Argentine clarified that if congregations want to turn into hotels the need to pay the taxes, “like everyone else.” The pope stressed in general that all congregations which run commercial activities must not hold the tax-exempt status. The popular pope underlined the need for the church institutions to “fight the temptation of the ‘God of money’, into which religious congregations often fall.”
In Italy, as in some other EU countries too, the issue of Church tax remains unresolved. The debt crisis in the third biggest Eurozone economy cause a heated debate regarding the tax-exempt status of the Italian church.
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