THE 'OTHER CAST - Hotels of the holy cross from ICI 
From The Other Caste "by Curzio Maltese.
The church does not pay the tax on buildings appealing to a law of '92, but the Supreme Court ruled illegal the EU has put Italy on trial. A fantastic terrace on the heart of Baroque Rome, surmounted by the bell tower of Santa Brigida, with a view of the Embassy French and even the attic of Cesare Previti. It is only the pride of the hotel Brigidine in Piazza Farnese, "magnificent palace of the '400," reads the brochure of the hotel, rated five-star tourist sites, highly recommended in the blog visitors, especially Americans, for good value for money and acceptance of the sisters.
"They all speak English and can get a free pass for the audiences of the Pope," writes an 'enthusiastic visitor from Singapore on the website Trip Advisor ("Read reviews and compare prices"). The only problem, they warn, is to find the place. Built around the church of Santa Brigida, almost always empty, but the hotel is always full.
Please book but it is not difficult. Just send an email to www.isfitutireligiosi.org, the portal that collects a thousand homes hotel in Catholic Italy, with plans to publish them all in the coming months "to reach agreements with major foreign tour operators to launch on the international market" . Or you can click directly on brigidine.org, the official website of the religious order founded by St. Bridget of Sweden, the extraordinary figure of mystical and mother of eight children, including another Santa Caterina. News that really do not get from the homepage of the Brigidine. The biography of the founder occupies only a few lines. On the other hand details are meticulous about chain hotels ("religious houses") managed by the Brigidine in 19 countries, a kind of Relais & Chateux of great appeal, for example the magnificent cloister of Old Havana, inaugurated by Fidel Castro himself. The price of a room in Piazza Farnese is 120 € for a single, 190 for two, including breakfast, plus three percent if you pay by credit card. La Casa di Santa Brigida
, four meters in the most expensive in Rome, plus the immense terrace, has a market value of about EUR 60 million, but joined the Roman land in the "boarding". It does not pay a penny of the Italian towns lose lei.Ogni years according to studies the Alice (Based on cadastral data away from the real market value ") more than 400 million euro due to a tax exemption unlawful and contrary to European competition rules. In this estimate we must add the properties considered unilaterally free forever and never declared to the municipalities to reach an estimated total revenue lost close to a billion euro annually.
would be more accurate to say that the loss is for Italian citizens, because then the municipalities will take the money missing from the usual pockets. The Future, an organ of the CEI, wrote that we must stop talking about the privilege of exemption because there is a law since 1992. ". A regime that had never had problems until 2004," he concludes. It's true. But he forgot to add that the "problem" that arose is the correction of the Supreme Court. A significant problem in a state of law. To which was added this year 's another little problem. anticipated by the "Republic", the investigation of the European Commission on the sector of business tax to the Italian Catholic Church, in the case of "state aid" in disguise. To the great scandal of some lobby MPs who have called for the pope's hand against Brussels.
Brief history of the dispute. The law of '92 on the exemptions ICI was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, which in 2004 was the correct way: are exempt only by ICE buildings that "do not perform commercial activities." The sentence as the previous exemption, applied to all stakeholders. In addition to the church property, not only Catholic, even to non-profit organization, unions, political parties, sports clubs and so furious via.Ma the only reaction came from the IEC, "A foolish decision." Why? Perhaps because it is one of the parties interested in owning a business empire: hotels, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, libraries, shops. "The phenomenon has surged before the Jubilee," explains the technical hip "but in the last decade, the commercial expansion of religious institutions is impressive." A portion of the mountain of public money (3500miliardi lire) earmarked for the Jubilee of 2000, more units consisting of eight per thousand in recent years have ended in real estate renovations that have transformed convents, colleges and hostels in modern hotel chains. A little
'everywhere, as in Piazza Farnese, the churches are empty but the hotels are filled with men. The reasons are not lacking: they are beautiful, well-managed, competitive prices and can be exploited by an extensive network of propaganda. The Catholic Church is one of the most powerful brokers in the world tourism growth for the first sector of the economy. It is estimated that forty million people every year to Italy and from the places of worship (Lourdes, Fatima, Czestochowa, Medjugorije ...). On top of the organizational pyramid, is the ORP (ORP), the dependence of the Vicariate of Rome, and then the Holy See. The activity is largely untouched, aside from LCI.
we understand that the CEI Ruini has moved against the "mad decision", the source of untold damage. "Until you get from the Berlusconi government throwing in the sponge by decree. A decree overturned the Supreme Court and restore the full exemption from 'ICI for the church property, "regardless" (with Toto) from any commercial use. It' autumn 2005 and Berlusconi in the advances made to the abolition Cei ICI that six months later, last-minute campaigning, he promised only to all other Italians.
was an explosion of joy-reads the website of the CEI - "five, five, toasts, congratulations, gratitude for all those who had worked to the approval of these rules."
Past elections, the new majority has once again raised the illegality of the rule node, prompted by the findings of the European Commission. And the Prodi government has solved the most hypocritical way. With a loophole inserted into the Bersani decree, they are exempted by ICE's use developments that have "not purely commercial." In practice, according to the Anci, means that "90 to 95 percent of church property still does not pay." In legal terms, "not exclusively commercial" is a nonsense, a kind of joke about the famous one of the pregnant woman "but just a little." In the secular civil law and the Italian tax "not only" had never appeared, an activity is commercial or noncommercial. The rest is history. Party's request for clarification from Brussels on the one hand the government responds that the "rule is very clear" and the other establishing a commission to study the ambiguities, wanted almost exclusively by the Minister of Economy Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, a convinced European. The report will be delivered in a few days, but reserved some movement anticipation. The President Francesco Tesauro, from its legal competence, it will be difficult to confirm the absurdity of "not exclusively" and therefore will inevitably change the norm.
"Nobody, I mean, you claim from the bar or the cinema of the oratorio," said the ANC president. the mayor of Florence Lorenzo Domenici. But since the business opened to the public in competition with others, than you. We gave full autonomy to individual communities to find local agreements with the cradle, and compile lists reliable. "But a sincere cooperation in separating the wheat from the chaff, the temples by markets, in short, the cult from the market, by curie there never was.
In March last year, to keep pace with the industry, the CEI has organized a mega conference in Rome titled "Holiday homes, and place a sign of hope." The acts and speakers', downloadable from the official website of the CEI, in fact make an excellent training course for tour operators, given by experts from accountants and not only highly trained but also have a unique capacity for the popular category . A visit to the site is widely recommended to any holder of a secular hotels, guest houses, bars and restaurants. In the many reports and long, thick-statutory rules of fiscal the spiritual aspect also appears under the heading swiftiana "Some humble suggestions to protect yourself in the near future by assessments ICI (even retroactively). He remembered that "A) 's host must recognize the full sharing of ideals and rules of conduct of the Christian religion; B) the client must undertake to respect the times of entry and exit C) leave the house for us Guests at the hotel and its staff for assistance religious religious than the adjoining chapel, "and so on. A party in Piazza Farnese gave us the keys to just come and go as we wanted, the IEC is to reduce the same spiritual vocation and therefore "non-commercial use" of Religious accommodation in a clever ploy by accountants to avoid the hated investigations. Yet two thousand years have passed since Jesus told the Pharisees, the clergy of 'era, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's." Finally, a painful but necessary clarification.
For weeks, the Catholic public information tables of the salaries of priests, as low as those of the workers, to "put the lie to an investigation based on lies." Now. the salaries of the priests have never been nor will it be this investigation. Indeed it can be agreed with the bodies of the CEI in saying that priests are a category underpaid compared to the effort expended in society. To say nothing of the sisters, under which the CEI does not pay one euro. The Brigidine Sisters of Farnese square, for example, get up early and work twelve hours a day, providing guests with courtesy and dedication that can not be learned at the hotel school, but will never have either a salary or pension, Unlike priests. And it is another source of embarrassment having to lay charges contribute to a system as discriminatory. The issue is not the 350 million for the salaries drawn by eight per thousand, which was invented for it. But the other four billion to go elsewhere, certainly in part to the missions of charity, in bulk in a car of power that influences and affects the economy, politics, democratic life and sometimes the exercise of constitutional rights, including freedom of the press.
