Catholic church criticized over church tax
Hindus have criticized the Roman
Catholic Church in Germany for reported Vatican approved decree denying of
religious burial, rituals, becoming godparents and other church rights to
adherents for not paying a special church tax.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a
statement in Nevada (USA) today, asked: Why would the German Roman Catholic
Church want to deprive devotees from religion who could not (or do not want to)
pay special church tax as religions primarily spoke against greed and advocated
inclusion instead of exclusion. It was simply a step in the wrong direction,
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, added.
Global child abuse scandal had
already engulfed the Roman Catholic Church and now came this tax decree. Roman
Catholic Church needed to show some maturity as such serious allegations
leveled against a large denomination/religion affected the whole religious
spectrum in the world, raising distrust among believers in general and eroding
faith of the faithful. Moreover, with non-use of religiosity, there was always
a danger of its diminishing, Zed argued.
Rajan Zed further said that religion
was important for the world as it was a mean to relate to ultimate reality,
provided hope, gave us value-systems and moral power, held people together and
made them accountable/responsible, and transmitted high value information that
transformed lives. Moreover religion, which was the heart and soul of humanity,
had various dimensions—ritual, emotional, narrative, philosophical, ethical,
social and moral; and religious prayers connected us to God.
But if we kept isolating the
faithful, the devotees might lose faith in religion or start directly
approaching God without the intermediation of church or other religious
institutions, Zed stressed. Vatican
should come out of its bureaucratic web and reset its priorities and undertake
complete reform, Zed noted.
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, who
is of German descent, heads the Roman Catholic Church, which at about 1.2
billion adherents is the largest of the Christian denominations. Catholics
constitute about 30 percent of German population. Hinduism, oldest and third
largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksh
(liberation) is its ultimate goal.
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