La Iglesia ahorra al Estado en educación más de 4.000 millones de euros al año, indica un experto de la Universidad de Navarra
The Church saves the State more than 4,000 million euros a year at Education , according to an expert from the University of Navarra.
Diego Zalbidea said that "the Spanish Church is sustained thanks to its faithful and other citizens who value what this institution contributes to society as a whole".
Diego Zalbidea, professor of the School of Canon Law of the University of Navarra, assured that "it is calculated that the Church saves the State in Education more than 4,000 million Euros". He also commented that, according to data of the Episcopal lecture , "each euro yields 2.73 times more in the Church than in the market". The expert made these statements in the XXVI Course of update in Canon Law of the University of Navarra, in which he is taking part with the discussion paper "La digna sustentación de los clérigos" (The worthy sustenance of the clergy). Experts from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Colombia, Chile and France are participating in the course.
"The Church does not want compensation for what it does because it is not motivated by money, but to be faithful to the mission statement given to it by its founder, Jesus Christ. What it can apply for to the State is the financial aid to carry out its activities in favor of the whole society, in the same way as the rest of the citizens do", he stressed.
Regarding the current model financing of the Church in Spain, he assured that, "as far as the economic cooperation of the State is concerned, it is acceptable. In any case, the tax allocation only represents between 20% and 25% of the income of the dioceses. This percentage varies according to each one of them; for example, in the budget of the Diocese of Pamplona and Tudela the tax allocation does not reach 16%. In any case, it is the will of the taxpayers -and only of those who freely decide to do so- which makes that part of the income go to cover the needs of the basic support of the Church".
Charity on the rise in times of crisis
In this sense, he affirmed that the model that was established in 2007 "has made all the faithful understand the need for their contribution to support the activities of the Church. This new status has been faced with maturity and generosity by Catholics and by many citizens who value the contribution of the Church to society as a whole".
As an example, he mentioned that, although Caritas has doubled the issue of people assisted in the last two years, the number of members has increased in the same proportion. He also referred to the fact that the people of Navarre have increased their aid to the Church with almost 3 million euros more than in 2010. "Precisely -he recalled-, the Pope mentioned a few days ago in Barcelona that Christians should show with concrete acts that charity is the hallmark of our Christian condition".