Pope Francis has a message for all the churches in the world who shirk their responsibility to do good works for those in society who need assistance: If you’re not willing to do anything to help the needy, you should be paying taxes like any other business. In an interview with Aura Miguel of Portugal’s Radio Renascença, Pope Francis urged Christians not to fall victim to the “God of money” as so many religious organizations do, but instead to do something to actually benefit society.
Many churches in Europe have developed the practice of renting out rooms to make money while exploiting tax loopholes to avoid actually contributing to society. The hunger for money among these religious institutions is so strong, the Pope points out, that they ignore the needs of refugees in favor of the almighty [insert currency here]. If churches choose to ignore his recent call to provide assistance to refugees, Pope Francis, says, that’s fine — as long as they are prepared to pay taxes just like any other business.
“Some religious orders say ‘No, now that the convent is empty we are going to make a hotel and we can have guests, and support ourselves that way, or make money,’” Francis said on the eve of a trip to the United States, adding a strong condemnation of religious institutions that choose money over their mission:
The Pope himself has taken in two refugee families at the Vatican, and he says they will stay “as long as the Lord wants.”
While taxing churches may seem like a radical idea, one could easily make the case for most United States churches to lose tax exempt status. In a 1983 court case involving Bob Jones University’s racist policies, the court ruled that a school could lose tax-exempt status if its policies violated “fundamental national public policy” — in this case, racial equality.
In other words, every single church that continues to preach against same-sex marriage can lose its tax-exempt status. No one, of course, can control the message of a religious institution — especially not the government.