THE Roman Catholic Church has gained an ally on its tax-exempt status through Tingog Sinirangan party-list leader Jude Acidre.
Acidre urged the critics to look further and consider an “alternative perspective” over the issue.
“Freedom of religion is a recognized paramount human right within democratic societies, including the right to believe and to act according to those beliefs. The State has the duty and obligation to uphold the free exercise of religion, and for that reason, the separation of Church and State exists in order to avoid State interference in internal religious matters, including necessarily burdening church communities,” said Acidre.
“It is not because of the good that the Church does that makes it deserving of a tax-exempt status, but more because any semblance of control or power of the State or any secular power over the Church will infringe upon the free exercise of religion,” he added.
Acidre said it is this “separation” that provides the best objective reason why the government should refrain from taxing religious groups.
“Taxing churches breaks down the healthy separation of church and state and can consequently limit the free exercise of religion. Furthermore, defining the ‘profit’ of a church would be difficult,” he said.
According to the Tingog Sinirangan leader, it is important to note that this tax exemption is not absolute.
“For example, the Church still pays taxes for income drawn from its for-profit activities and investments - including VAT. However, because the Church is not selling a ‘consumer good’ per se, it would be nearly impossible to tax them as a regular for-profit business.
“For the State to determine what assets and income of a church would be taxed would involve excessive meddling in church affairs, which would likely be unconstitutional,” Acidre, who is also a former seminarian, said.
In a statement, he stressed that the point of the separation of Church and State is not to create a religion-free public sphere.
“It is, instead, to safeguard the fundamental right to religious freedom by imposing limits on the regulatory - and, yes, the taxing—powers of governments,” he said.
“I would like to believe the Twelve (Apostles) had their time talking about the politics of the day, and it must have been an interesting discussion. But Christ wasn’t of the Left nor of the Right. His politics was love, his truth, salvation,” Acidre pointed out.
According to him, the Church “must be a wide open tent ready to embrace all of varied political and social persuasions, but bound not by the politics of this age, but that of the Gospel.”
In his latest tirade, the firebrand Pres. Rodrigo Duterte questioned the Church’s practice of collecting money from its members. (SunStar Philippines)