Germany's Roman Catholics are to be denied the right to Holy Communion or religious burial if they stop paying a special church tax. A German bishops' decree which has just come into force says anyone failing to pay 8% of their annual income tax will no longer be considered a Catholic. The bishops have been alarmed by the increasing number of German Catholics leaving the Church in recent years. They say such a step should be seen as a serious act against the community. All Germans who are officially registered as Catholics, Protestants or Jews pay a religious tax of 8-9% of their annual income tax. The levy was introduced in the 19th Century in compensation for the nationalisation of religious property. Catholics make up around 30% of Germany's population but the number of congregants leaving the church swelled to 181,000 in 2010, with the increase blamed on revelations of sexual abuse by German priests.
Pray: for the Catholic Church that it will not deny rights to those who cannot afford these taxes.