Catholic church in trouble in Norway

[WhiteWarrior]

As some might be aware, the catholic church is the fastest growing church in Norway. This has been considered a direct effect of the immigration from catholic-dominated countries of the last couple of decades, especially the eastern european countries and the southeast-asia ones including Thailand and the Philippines. So far all is well.

Here in Norway, religious organizations enjoy a financial support from the state and the municpalities in direct correlation with the numbers of members they have, something that certainly promotes active recruiting. I should add that also political parties and sports organizations receive funding in the same manner. So far, still all well - although I cannot grasp WHY religion should receive state funding.

A system like this is begging to be abused. The more money the organizations can rake in from the state, the more money they can use on buying recruitment services and rent nice buildings and pay the top leaders higher meeting "refunds" and hiring expensive lawyers and tax evasion specialists. The money is supposed to be used on the members and the activity they organized. And yes, there have been abuse cases. The two largest political parties were caught with fictive membership lists a couple of decades ago and some careers ended. Just the last two years, what seemed to be the biggest anti racism organization and indeed the biggest youth organization of the country, was revealed to be doing a massive fraud on false memberships, on-paper-only- local subgroups and fictive course weekends and even be involved in discreetly helping small neonazist groups with their organizations so they could have someone to organize demonstrations against. A very nice scheme sewn together by a communist group who, on the day of the great police raid, took out millions of dollars in cash from their accounts and hid them while their computers were hidden away and destroyed.

So what does all this have to do with the catholic church? Surely they would not.... oh yes they did. No, their impressive list of new members were not fictive. But they were based on adding every single name and address and personal information (as required) of every last catholic born immigrant and their families. Without asking them, and with the help of some administrative employee in the state whose identity has not been revealed. Some of the immigrants who has been controlled by the police so far, confirm that they are not even catholics any more, having gone to other faiths since birth, and many others say they neither knew they were enrolled into the Norwegian catholic church nor had any wish to do so. The catholic church claims innocence and that they intent to fix their lists. Sometimes.

This story has unfolded this autumn. What prompts me to tell this story now is that there is a fresh development. The municipalities who have given the catholic churches in their areas considerable chunks of money, are now demanding their money back and withholding any further funding until the church can actually document that their lists are true. I will admit that I love this. The crusaders of morality should be held to the standard they want others to stand for.

[skygazer]

"the crusaders of morality" indeed. Somehow I don't see them having much trouble providing the required 'proof'. Liars, cheats and thieves are a plenty within the organization.

[sunsoul]

There is a beautiful cathedral in Trondheim. Nidaros cathedral. Very famous, and with a splendid Romanesque-Gothic design. It was originally a Catholic cathedral but it was taken over by Lutherans in 1537 during the Reformation. So, Catholicism is not a new religion suddenly invading the country.

I don't know about the current details you mention but hopefully it will be resolved!

[Morpheus]

Originally Posted by skygazer

"the crusaders of morality" indeed. Somehow I don't see them having much trouble providing the required 'proof'. Liars, cheats and thieves are a plenty within the organization.

Exclusive to the Catholic Church, you think -gazer? Really...

Let's talk about human nature. The situation in which we find ourselves here...
apart from a greater reality and Truth. Of which we are all involved.

As the Bible clearly delineates, describes, and explains.

[skygazer]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

Exclusive to the Catholic Church, you think -gazer? Really...

Let's talk about human nature. The situation in which we find ourselves here...
apart from a greater reality and Truth. Of which we are all involved.

As the Bible clearly delineates, describes, and explains.

Not at all. I don't think the catholics have the corner on the market of criminal activity, but it was in the op topic, Morpheus.