[Cheese]

Roman Catholic Church that is....

....Germany's bishops are so rattled by the number of people officially disassociating themselves from the church (which had been running at around 120,000 a year, but jumped to over 180,000 in 2010). Hence, they've issued the following decree:

Catholics who leave can no longer receive sacraments, except for a special blessing before death, the decree states.
They cannot work in the church or its institutions, such as schools and hospitals, or be active in church-sponsored associations such as charity groups or choirs.
They cannot be godparents for Catholic children and must get a bishop's permission to marry a Catholic in a church ceremony.
"If the person who left the Church shows no sign of repentance before death, a religious burial can be refused," it added. (source)

The remarkable thing is that, as far as I can tell, church officials aren't saying that people can continue to participate in church life if they opt out of the tax but put their own money in the collection plate instead. No, the German bishops are saying that people have to pay the officially assessed tax rate if they want to be church members.


Germans have a system whereby they pay their associated religion of choice via their taxes.

....in that country, if you officially record your religious affiliation as Protestant, Catholic or Jewish, then a percentage of your income tax payment, about 9%, goes to the governing body of your chosen denomination.

...They've just declared, in effect, that Catholicism in Germany isn't a welcoming community or a free association of people, but an expensive country club with annual dues. I think this is more likely to push wavering Catholics out the door than compel them to stay, since it communicates to them that their continued membership depends not on their faith, but on the contents of their wallets.