Christians shutter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to protest taxes

JERUSALEM (AP) — The leaders of the major Christian sects in Jerusalem closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the traditional site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, for several hours on Sunday to protest an Israeli plan to tax their properties.

The Christian leaders responsible for the site issued a joint statement bemoaning what they called a “systematic campaign of abuse” against them, comparing it to anti-Jewish laws issued in Nazi Germany.

The Christians are angry about the Jerusalem municipality plans to tax their various assets around the city and a potential parliament bill to expropriate land sold by the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. The churches, which are major landowners in the holy city, say it violates a long standing status quo.

The Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and the Armenian Apostolic leaders said the moves seemed like an attempt to “weaken the Christian presence in Jerusalem...” (continued)

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• Christians shutter famous Jerusalem church to protest taxes

Pope's Article in Financial Times: A Time for Christians to Engage With the World

"The Birth of Christ Challenges us to Reassess our Priorities, Our Values, Our Very Way of Life"

By Pope Benedict XVI

The following is the full text of the article written by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI which appeared in the Financial Times. 

* * *

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 20, 2012 (Zenit.org).- "Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God," was the response of Jesus when asked about paying taxes. His questioners, of course, were laying a trap for him. They wanted to force him to take sides in the highly charged political debate about Roman rule in the land of Israel. Yet there was more at stake here: if Jesus really was the long-awaited Messiah, then surely he would oppose the Roman overlords. So the question was calculated to expose him either as a threat to the regime, or as a fraud.

Jesus' answer deftly moves the argument to a higher plane, gently cautioning against both the politicization of religion and the deification of temporal power, along with the relentless pursuit of wealth. His audience needed to be reminded that the Messiah was not Caesar, and Caesar was not God. The kingdom that Jesus came to establish was of an altogether higher order. As he told Pontius Pilate: "My kingship is not of this world."

The Christmas stories in the New Testament are intended to convey a similar message. Jesus was born during a "census of the whole world" ordered by Caesar Augustus, the emperor renowned for bringing the Pax Romana to all the lands under Roman rule. Yet this infant, born in an obscure and far-flung corner of the empire, was to offer the world a far greater peace, truly universal in scope and transcending all limitations of space and time.

Jesus is presented to us as King David’s heir, but the liberation he brought to his people was not about holding hostile armies at bay; it was about conquering sin and death forever.

The birth of Christ challenges us to reassess our priorities, our values, our very way of life. While Christmas is undoubtedly a time of great joy, it is also an occasion for deep reflection, even an examination of conscience. At the end of a year that has meant economic hardship for many, what can we learn from the humility, the poverty, the simplicity of the crib scene?

Christmas can be the time in which we learn to read the Gospel, to get to know Jesus not only as the child in the manger, but as the one in whom we recognize that God made man. It is in the Gospel that Christians find inspiration for their daily lives and their involvement in worldly affairs – be it in the Houses of Parliament or the stock exchange. Christians should not shun the world; they should engage with it. But their involvement in politics and economics should transcend every form of ideology.

Christians fight poverty out of a recognition of the supreme dignity of every human being, created in God’s image and destined for eternal life. They work for more equitable sharing of the earth's resources out of a belief that – as stewards of God’s creation – we have a duty to care for the weakest and most vulnerable. Christians oppose greed and exploitation out of a conviction that generosity and selfless love, as taught and lived by Jesus of Nazareth, are the way that leads to fullness of life. The belief in the transcendent destiny of every human being gives urgency to the task of promoting peace and justice for all.

Because these goals are shared by so many, much fruitful co-operation is possible between Christians and others. Yet Christians render to Caesar only what belongs to Caesar, not what belongs to God. Christians have at times throughout history been unable to comply with demands made by Caesar. From the emperor cult of ancient Rome to the totalitarian regimes of the past century, Caesar has tried to take the place of God.
When Christians refuse to bow down before the false gods proposed today, it is not because of an antiquated worldview. Rather, it is because they are free from the constraints of ideology and inspired by such a noble vision of human destiny that they cannot collude with anything that undermines it.

In Italy, many crib scenes feature the ruins of ancient Roman buildings in the background. This shows that the birth of the child Jesus marks the end of the old order, the pagan world, in which Caesar’s claims went virtually unchallenged. Now there is a new king, who relies not on the force of arms, but on the power of love.

He brings hope to all those who, like himself, live on the margins of society. He brings hope to all who are vulnerable to the changing fortunes of a precarious world. From the manger, Christ calls us to live as citizens of his heavenly kingdom, a kingdom that all people of goodwill can help to build here on earth.

The writer is the Bishop of Rome and author of ‘Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives'
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On the NET:

For the original publication of the article, go to: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/099d055e-4937-11e2-9225-00144feab49a.html#axzz2FaKmB3UR

Link:

• Pope's Article in Financial Times: A Time for Christians to Engage With the World

Catholic Church in Italy to be stripped of tax exemption from 2013

In 2010 the EU opened an investigation into whether tax breaks enjoyed by some Church properties in Italy could be classed as illegal state aid.

(The Telegraph) The Church currently pays tax on several properties it owns that are commercial enterprises but is exempt if at least some of the activities on the property are "non-commercial" - for example a chapel in a hotel.

"The regulatory framework will be definite by January 1, 2013 - the start of the fiscal year - and will fully respect the (European) Community law," Prime Minister Mario Monti's government said in a statement late Tuesday.

In February, the government had amended Italy's property tax law to end the Church's privileges amid rising calls for the Vatican to share in debt crisis sacrifices and in the face of intense scrutiny from the European Commission.

On Monday the Council of State, Italy's highest ranking court for administrative litigation, rejected the decree. But the government insisted everyone would pay property tax, Church included.

In 2010 the EU opened an investigation into whether tax breaks enjoyed by some Church properties in Italy could be classed as illegal state aid.

The extra revenue from these exempt properties - including hotels, restaurants and sports centres - could be €25.5m a year in Rome alone, La Repubblica daily reported, citing official figures.

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• Italian church to be stripped of tax exemption from 2013

Ann Barnhardt: Buzzsaw Raised to the Power of Blowtorch

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - April 16, AD 2012 10:44 AM MST

"Here is me speaking last week at 'Liberty First' down in Colorado Springs. It is a relatively poor-quality video taken in the back of the room, but it is watchable. It has also been edited for time. There are a few jumps.

Language warning. Seriously. You have been disclaimed."

"Are you going to pay the one dollar a month abortion surcharge?" "I will go to prison. And I will rot in prison. Or I will dangle at the end of a rope before I renounce and betray my savior and the truth." - Ann Barnhardt

• Buzzsaw Raised to the Power of Blowtorch

Good afternoon. My name is Ann Barnhardt and I am the person who says the things that everyone else is too terrified, and too attached to earthly riches and power, to say.

Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and render unto the Lord that which is the Lord’s.

There seems to be some confusion as to what Caesar, in the form today of Caesar Tyrannus Obama, is owed, so please permit me to clear up any confusion on the matter once and for all.

Caesar Tyrannus Obama is NOT OWED the broken bodies, decapitated heads and spilled blood of our pre-born children, even though he now demands that he be worshiped with such slaughter, and that we pay for it in a tribute attached to our now-mandatory health insurance policies and enforced by his tax collectors, or lose our earthly liberty.

Caesar Tyrannus Obama is NOT OWED our fertility and ability to transmit and propagate human life itself, even though he demands that WE PAY for foolish young women to offer up their bodies to him, both in the forms of temporary chemical sterilization OR permanent surgical sterilization.

Caesar Tyrannus Obama is NOT OWED our humanity, as he demands that we allow ourselves to be reduced to nothing more than economic units, upon which cost-benefit analyses will be calculated so that Caesar Tyrannus Obama may decide who lives and who dies, that he may rape the still-productive living and intoxicate himself on the blood of the unfit and economically burdensome dead.

Caesar Tyrannus Obama is NOT OWED our souls, as he demands that we publically renounce our Crucified Savior and enter into mortal sin by cooperating with his satanic regime. Caesar Tyrannus Obama demands that either we join him, with his master, in hell for all eternity, or we will lose our earthly possessions, our liberty, and eventually perhaps even our lives.

With all of the Christian Charity I can muster, I say this to Caesar Tyrannus Obama:

Go to hell.

Antichrists like you are owed nothing but the scathing contempt of decent human beings.

I will never comply.

I will never submit.

I will never renounce Christ.

I will never betray my Savior.

Confiscate my estate. Throw me in prison. Hang me at noon on the town square. I am not afraid, and frankly, I’d consider it an honor.

I cannot be intimidated and I cannot be coerced to violate my conscience, because I fight under the Banner of Christ.

And because I fight under the Banner of Jesus Christ, I FEAR NO MAN.

I will render unto God that which is God’s, which is everything I have and everything I am.

I can think of no greater honor than to climb up on the Cross and be crucified with Jesus at the hands of Caesar.

For what little my wretched life is worth, may the Lord accept my sacrifice at Caesar’s hands, for the praise and glory of His Name and the good of all His Church.

HAIL Christ the King!

Viva Cristo Rey!

- Ann Barnhardt, at the Denver Rally for Religious Liberty

Bp. Finn on the eve of the election: “Woe to those…”

From WDTPRS:

"In the wake of the election and its results, I want to share a sermon given by His Excellency Most Rev. Robert Finn, Bishop of Kansas City, MO.

A preview:

The Freedom of Choice Act will mark the beginning of a great persecution against religious liberty, because it will require tax payer money to be used for abortions. You and I will be faced with this legal trial: whether we should pay our taxes making us participants in the slaughter of Innocents or be liable for jail and fines.

My emphases and comments.

Homily for the Eve of the Election
November 3, 2008 – St. Therese North Parish
Most Reverend Robert W. Finn
Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph

Judges 7:1-22
Revelation 11:19; 12: 1-6, 10.
Matthew 10: 26-33

Dear friends,

Over the next 24 hours, millions of Americans will go to the polls throughout our country to cast ballots for the leaders of our nation, state, and community. We will make decisions about amendments and propositions. This is a wonderful process and privilege of citizenship in a country that values the ideal of freedom.

But let us have no doubt about this: through this process we are more than participants in a democratic process. We are becoming participants in life and death. The candidates we choose do not arise merely on their own. We place them in office. [He shifts the ground. Our actions have deeper implications than merely who takes office.]

Clearly, all these leaders are imperfect men and women like ourselves. They will make decisions day by day, and many of the circumstances of war and domestic work are not able to be known until they happen. Nonetheless, when they tell us specifically what they will do and we are therefore able to foresee some of the likely consequences ["when they tell us what they will do"... good point] of their leadership we share in the responsibility of their acts. In this sense an election is about even more than physical life and death. It is also about your eternal salvation and mine. [Our actions have implications for our salvation. Remember… the purpose of life is ultimately not to build a worldly utopia.] This is the first reason to pray. Pray that we will take seriously – that every other voter will take seriously – the meaning of our choices. In a country where we have made choice an absolute, we must remember that underlying every choice is a value; that flowing from every choice is a consequence; that we must give an accounting to God for what we decide.

Our Lord instructs us in the Gospel we have heard, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna.” The enormity of this election is founded, in part, on the radical determination of some who would lead our country deeper than ever before into the darkness of the culture of death. This is a path that would certainly mean the death of countless more innocent lives. As shepherd of this Diocese I am also deeply saddened by the prospect of the cost in people’s souls, [He takes the cura animarum seriously.] the souls of those who would place a candidate’s promise of economic prosperity above the life of the most innocent of our brothers and sisters.

Most perilous is the fate of those Catholics who, with hardened hearts, decide to create for themselves, and preach to others, a false gospel that the “right” to an abortion must not be challenged, or that the humanity of the child need not be protected.

Most fraudulent are those Catholic leaders, or alliances of Catholics, that insist that the radically evil injustice of abortion need not be directly opposed, but rather, that somehow solving the dilemma of the poor in a sweeping act of charity will cause the foundation of this monstrous crime to crumble.

Why is this so terribly amiss? Because the foundation and cause of abortion is not poverty but a blind disregard for personal responsibility, a heinous denial and disrespect for human life, and an idolatrous worship of personal convenience. This is why even in the wealthy countries of Scandinavia the highest rates of abortions are followed by rampant euthanasia. [Wow… the liberals are going to hate this guy for a looong time.]

Friends, the poor do not hate their children any more or less than the rich. The poison of which abortion is the most dreadful manifestation is the sinful suffocation of selfishness, and it can and does affect all strata of society. Woe to those, particularly Catholics, who dare to try to convince us that their “choice” of a radically pro-abortion leader is within the parameters of conscience. [A bishop who uses a phrase… with deadly seriousness… "Woe to those…"] God have mercy on those who exude freely this salve for their partisan cooperators. I fear that they will bear a greater responsibility than most. Against them will come not only the cry of millions of human lives savagely destroyed, but the souls of those they have sucked down with themselves. This is the very definition of scandal, and the reason that so many have spoken out with such urgency to announce the authentic teaching of the Church.

Part of the damage we have been promised is encapsulated in the Freedom of Choice Act, which has been held at bay the last eight years. When all the reasonable limits on abortion, gained in the last 35 years have been summarily swept away: parental notification, waiting periods, counseling and informed consent, the number of those killed will grow by more than 100,000 a year.

The Freedom of Choice Act will mark the beginning of a great persecution against religious liberty, ["a great persecution against religious liberty"] because it will require tax payer money to be used for abortions. You and I will be faced with this legal trial: whether we should pay our taxes making us participants in the slaughter of Innocents or be liable for jail and fines.

And what of our Catholic hospitals? If we are forced to provide such destructive services under the Freedom of Choice Act, we will have to refuse. Catholic health care workers, and other men and women of good conscience, will risk losing their jobs [It is going to become very real, folks.] when their conscience exception is lost and they are pressured to participate. I read a letter recently in our daily paper: The man said, “If you don’t want an abortion. Don’t have one.” Under a regime of such change, you and I will not have such an easy choice. By paying, it will become “our abortion.” Lord, have mercy on us, and on our country.

In the light of these clear and present dangers, [A "clear and present danger" for the Church and souls.] I chose tonight’s Gospel, in part, because four times it tells us, “Don’t be afraid!” Let us not be afraid, dear flock. You are worth so much to God; more than sparrows, more than an election, more than any man can measure. Our first goal is this: we must get through tomorrow with our eternal souls intact. We know that God will take care of the rest.

A week ago, I wrote our diocese a letter hoping that it would be heard by all as a necessary call to prayer. Many of our pastors read it to their people. Some, I am sure, suffered a bit from doing so. Thank you, dear brave priests.

I also know that it wasn’t heard by all. Let us not be too hard on those who, for fear or even disagreement, have shrunk back even from the call to pray! It takes time for us to learn to carry our burdens, our obedience, our responsibility. I want you all to pray that – at the hour of greatest need – none will step back from the sacrifice that makes us most like Jesus Christ.

In the first reading, God tells Gideon that He is going to win a great victory. So that Gideon and the People of Israel don’t get too big a head, God determines to go against the hundreds of thousands of the enemy with only three hundred men. He even proceeds to choose those who are perhaps the least sophisticated of all, “those who lap up their water like dogs.” God certainly doesn’t pull any punches!

St. Paul says something similar when he announces that God chooses those whom the world considers foolish to shame the wise. (1 Cor 1:27) Dear friends, there is hope for us! God can use us – few and unsophisticated as we are to win the victory of life. God can choose “the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something.” (1 Cor 1: 28)

I pray this reading from about Gideon’s lopsided battle will remind God and us of the kind of victory He can win for His people. May He grant us this same mercy these days, all in accord with His will and plan; all for the glory of His name; all for the protection of human life.

In the second reading we have the image of Mary, the Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and the crown of stars on her head. Mary, we cry out to you, O Mother of life, O Empress of America, O Star of the New Evangelization, O Immaculate patroness of our Diocese and our country: Gather us under the mantel of your maternal love. Mary, Lady of the Rosary whom we have invoked so often, particularly in the last month, “Pray for us sinners!” You, O Queen and our Mother, “despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us from all dangers, O ever-glorious and blessed Virgin.

Dear friends, over the next 24 hours, millions of Americans will go to the polls throughout our country to cast ballots for the leaders of our nation, state, and community. We are called to be participants in life and death. May God guide us to choose life. May He make us his fearless apostles, and use us to construct a civilization of life and love.

What the bishop said is certainly the case. Those who will refuse to participate in the widening culture of death are going to be persecuted. The vaunted freedom of religion enshrined in the Constitution will be shoved aside in favor of wicked policies.

Having moved this onto the field of religious liberty, I am moved to ask another question.

The Council’s teaching on religious liberty is a point of contention for the SSPX against the Holy See.

But it is often a rather dreamy discussion, very theoretical.

We are going to have more experience of the practical implications soon.

Isn’t it time for our ranks to close?"

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www.lucianne.com

Rangel won't step down from tax-writing post

"Mr. Rangel has not considered, nor has it ever been on the table, that he would step aside from his current position as chairman of the House Ways and Mean Committee," said Davis. "He has no intention of leaving that position, even on a temporary basis...

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