Should the Catholic Church in the Philippines be taxed?

It is impossible to tell but what few Filipinos know is that there is a lot of money coming from Church contributions, stocks and equity holdings. Moreover there are still 23 friar lands in the Philippines.

As a money making body the question is being asked if the Church or any other religious entities (INC is another) should be taxed.

In the history of the Catholic Church its moneys were referred to as Peter’s pence which is the name of the annual tax of one penny from every English householder having land of a certain value, paid to the papal see at Rome from Anglo-Saxon times until it was discontinued in 1534 after Henry VIII’s break with Rome.

This tax is?a voluntary payment by Roman Catholics to the papal treasury, made since 1860. I believe it is still required by the Vatican but today it is buried deep in sophisticated financial instruments.

In an article published in the magazine The Street (New York) its readers  should not feel guilty about investing in “sin” stocks, the term used for makers of guns, cigarettes and alcohol products, ”Over the years the Catholic church, has been a large investor in these factories.

“In the 1960s, Italian media uncovered evidence that the Vatican had invested in entities that conflict directly with the church’s holy mission, including Istituto Farmacologico Serono, a pharmaceutical company that made birth control pills, and Udine, a military weapons manufacturer. There was  also an unconfirmed rumor of church money in firearms manufacturer Beretta and companies with activities in gambling and pornography. It has been linked to dealings with Nazi gold during World War II as well.

The Catholic Church has a history of corruption, and it is a notoriously opaque institution. Sexual abuse accusations (and the consequent cover-ups) have put it in the headlines most recently, but it has been at the center of numerous scandals over the years, ranging from accusations of ties to the mafia in Rome to allegations of stealing babies in Chile and Spain.”

Pope Francis, who is visiting the US has been credited with bringing enormous changes to the Catholic Church since his election to the papacy in 2013, including the Church’s finances.

Among these are  major overhauls at the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly referred to as the Vatican Bank, a privately held financial institution located inside Vatican City. Founded in 1942 with the intention of safeguarding and administering property intended for works of religion or charity, the bank only accepts deposits from Catholic institutions and individual account-holders who are tied to the church. It then manages that money and provides services much as other banks do.

The bank has faced numerous scandals over the years. I was in London when one of the most significant scandals came to light – the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, of which the Vatican Bank was the main shareholder. The Italian bank went under after making what was estimated at the time to be $1.4 billion in unsecured loans to dummy companies in Latin America. At the center of an investigation into its dealings was what The New York Times described as a “close but ambiguous” relationship between the Ambrosiano’s president, Roberto Calvi, and Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the head of the Vatican Bank. In the wake of the scandal, Calvi was found dead, hanged from a bridge in what is largely believed to be a faked suicide. His identity was unknown when the news broke out and investigative reporters covering the Vatican revealed who he was.

Just recently, the Vatican was caught up in yet another financial scandal, when Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who was an accountant at the bank that managed the Church’s real estate investments, was arrested when he tried to smuggle €20 million ($26 million in 2013, when the plot was uncovered) into Italy, allegedly on behalf of the d’Amico shipping family. He told the authorities that he stood to gain €2.5 million on the deal. Investigators were first alerted to him when he reported paintings stolen from his apartment and police discovered a luxurious pad packed to the ceiling with expensive art and furnishings, which the Monsignor, who draws a small salary as a member of the clergy, claimed were gifts.

Things have come a long way since even then. In fact, Scarano’s arrest could be seen as part of the move toward reform.

The Vatican passed its first legislation against money laundering and terrorist group funding in 2011. At the Vatican Bank, Pope Francis has brought in new leadership, increased transparency and limited access to the bank to diocese and other Catholic organizations to further fight against money laundering. Under his watch, the bank also disclosed its very first annual financial report in 2013 (the bank released a second annual report last year). All this highlights what we should know about the  finances of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. In a comment made in Facebook Sass Rogando Sasot wrote the piece.

“The Philippine Catholic Church REMITS money to the Vatican. According to Vatican’s statistics, the Philippines ranks 3rd in the number of Catholics (trailing behind Brazil and Mexico). Is the Vatican among the top aid givers of our country? The poor Filipinos are paying for the lavish lifestyle of those living in the Vatican.”

This we should keep in mind when the bishops ask starting on July 17, Filipino Catholics to join them in three more days of prayers with fasting and almsgiving without giving other details.

Duterte has had a thorny relationship with Catholic bishops, who have criticized his anti-drug crackdown and vulgar language and expressed alarm over the killings of three priests in brazen gun attacks in recent months. In televised speeches, the 73-year-old leader has often lashed out at Catholic bishops, recalling reports of sexual abuses by members of the clergy, including a foreign Jesuit priest, who, he said, fondled him and other fellow students in a Catholic university.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines did not name Duterte in a carefully worded but highly critical “pastoral exhortation,” but the allusion to the president and his tough anti-crime crackdowns was clear.

The bishops denied accusations they were involved in moves to destabilize the government and said the church respects elected officials “as long as they do not contradict the basic spiritual and moral principles we hold dear, such as respect for the sacredness of life.”

We can start by investigating its finances and what exactly happens to these. That would be a good start for resolving the question of whether the Church should be taxed.