Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Norway Cath.Church Fined for Padding Members; State Pays Rel. Minorities Based on Membership

The Norwegian Catholic Church has been fined 1m kroner (about $142,000) for exaggerating the number of members it has, in order to receive more state aid, The Guardian website reports today (November 30, 2016).

Oslo prosecutors slapped the fine on the Diocese of Oslo, responsible for keeping national records of Catholics living in the Scandinavian country.

The diocese is accused of having gone through telephone directories looking for immigrants with names suggesting that they were from Catholic countries and adding them to the list of members of the church between 2011 and 2014, sometimes without their knowledge.

In Norway -- a predominantly Protestant country -- the state finances the various religious minorities in proportion to the number of church members.

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