Can citizens call attention to the tax-exempt status of the Catholic church.?

Absolutely... inundate your senators with your opinion on this issue. I agree, that they should lose their tax exempt status for punishing those who did not vote as they desired. There are other issues besides the abortion issue, and they are clearly already working to influence the next elections.

<<Can citizens call attention to the tax-exempt status of the Catholic church.?>>

They can, and do - but the tax-exempt status of religions isn't going to change no matter how many people think it should.

Thank you US Constitution!

<<If a priest can tell Obama supporters to not take communion, doesn't that mean that they should be forced to relinquish any tax-exempt status?>>

I think you are WAY confused.

First - Obama is not a Catholic. As such, Obama won't be attending Catholic Mass nor trying to receive Communion. So, if anyone tries to deny him Communion, it's not going to be a Catholic prist.

Second - Biden IS a Catholic. Due to his pro-abortion stance, he is automatically excommunicated from the Church. Given that fact, a priest simply CANNOT administer Communion to Biden even if the priest wanted to personally. Having said that, you probably will see Catholic priests administering Communion to Biden - to their own peril.

Third - back to Obama; The US Council of Catholic Bishops has promised to confront Obama on his pro-abortion stance, as it is their rght to do on account of the fact these bishops are American citizens.

<<I want to see religion affect our government in a positive way, for a nice change. Tax them and put a dent in the deficit.>>

The annual budget of Vatican City is roughly the same size as that of the City of Chicago - not nearly enough to "put a dent" in anything, never mind the deficit.

It's irrelevant anyway as teh Constitution forbids the taxation of religious establishments.

<<So, is there anything that American citizens can do about this?>>

As far as taxing religions? No.

The establishment of religion in America is protected by the First Amendment. None of the first Ten Amendments can be changed either.

While the Catholic church should definately think about reforming some of its views to more match todays society, I think that what the law was intended on was to keep out an theocracy and so as long as the politicians are not saying the exact view points of the church that the church should retain its tax-exempt status. The problem here is you can't tell if its the politicians who are just extremely religious or if its the churches trying to gain power. So while the Church is setting standards for living so standards are what makes up the political system as well. The line is to fuzzy to really tell.

Since the Catholic Church functions almost entirely on donations, what, exactly, would you want taxed?

A priest can tell an Obama supporter not to take communion because supporting abortion is against the tenets of the faith. It does not forbid a person from voting for who then want. It simply makes them choose one or the other - which happens ALL over the place in all sorts of organizations, religious or otherwise.

Of course, anyone can report a violation of the law.

But one priest out of thousands breaking Church rules is not really a good example of the Catholic Church as a whole doing "bad" things.

For example, McCain supported what is considered an immoral war in Iraq, the death penalty, unjust immigration policy, and not helping the poor as much as Obama would. Could not Catholics who voted for McCain also be denied Communion?

"Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility" a document published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is also rather vague on the issue: http://www.usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/FCStateme...

With love in Christ.

Hello,

Only so long as the laws were consistent and stayed the course. If a big right wing Southern faction later got in because Obama's administration did poorly and they wanted to disfranchise the blacks, bring back some Jim Crow laws, mine the Mexican border and put illegal immigrants in concentration camps then any church that opened their mouth on this, including the Catholic would certainly have to be clobbered with heavier tax liabilities.

Cheers,

Michael Kelly

ALL religious organizations in the United states are tax exempt - not just the catholic church.

Take responsibility and stop pushing the blame to other people.

Will the United states government then provide for all the people(millions) world wide that the Catholic Church supports on a daily basis. You do know that each employee of the church pays income taxes dont you? property taxes are also paid. The money that is given to the church has already been taxed.

No one should receive the Holy Eucharist if they are in a state of mortal sin.

"Therefore whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. . . . For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself" (1 Cor. 11:27, 29).

Getting rid of blanket tax exemption would be best for everyone including honest churches. If you're doing charitable work you write it off and you're back to being tax exempt. If not you pay your taxes and honest churches can say "see we're doing good" and they don't have to be branded along with the bad ones.

The priest is talking about a moral issue. If a priest were to say "vote for McCain (or Obama) from the pulpit, that would be different. Actually, the protestant churches talk about political issues more often from the pulpit, yet nothing is done about it.