February 2013
January 2013
Denmark: church seeking priest who believes in God →
politiken.dk
Do you believe or not believe – that is the question. At least for the state-run Lutheran Parish Council of Mejdal in the diocese of Viborg in Jutland.
As the first parish ever in the country, Mejdal is advertising for a new vicar to take care of the religious welfare of its congregation – but the job advertisement makes it clear, the congregation wants someone who actually believes in God, according to Kristeligt Dagblad.
The Parish Council is apparently worried that it may run into the same problems caused by Vicar Thorkild Grosbøll in the Copenhagen suburb of Taarbæk who caused a flurry of controversy in 2003 after stating stated that he did not believe in a creator and interventionist God.
“We have written [that we want a believer] to underscore that we want a priest who is a believer,” Mejdal Parish Council Chairman Karl Georg Pedersen tells Kristeligt Dagblad.
“It should be obvious, but we’re not at all that sure that it is. The Grosbøll case still haunts us and there are different attitudes among priests to Christianity and the gospels,” he adds.
The council’s prerequisite was included following a questionnaire distributed to the local congregation asking them what they wanted in a new priest.
Denmark’s National Vicars’ Union, however, isn’t too pleased with the idea. (via Politiken.dk)
Italian tax dodgers uncovered by the Redditometro →
bbc.co.uk
The Italian authorities have been accused of resorting to police state-style tactics with the introduction of a new weapon to hunt down the nation’s many tax dodgers.
The new procedure makes it possible to scrutinise any family’s spending pattern, and compare this with what it says it earns.
Tax evasion in Italy has been a chronic problem for generations.
The authorities say the equivalent of nearly 120bn euros (£100bn, $160bn) worth of revenue is lost every year.
And the nation’s army of tax inspectors desperately needs more firepower.
But some commentators have been outraged by this month’s launch of what is called the Redditometro - the Income Meter.
It has been described as unacceptably intrusive, the sort of thing that East Germany’s secret police might have dreamt up.
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Can graffiti revive a French townscape?
Graffiti is still a relatively new art form, with its modern-day origins in New York’s counterculture and hip hop music. In Seine Saint Denis, just outside of Paris, authorities are hoping graffiti tours and a mural project will breathe new life into some of its rundown neighbourhoods. (via RFI)
