The issue of church heating is the concern of believers or state?
One church in Šiauliai is very expensive for heating. There are several hundred euros per month for heating alone. The larger church pays close to a thousand in the coldest months.
“For all churches, we are not just thinking about ourselves, there is a big problem. We spend about 2.5 thousand people in winter like this. EUR for heating alone, ”said Šiauliai St. Gintaras Antanas Jonikas, pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
LNK stop shot.
And here's another Šiauliai church for a month for heating, 800 euros. The pastor claims that it is increasingly harder to do every year.
« Frankly, we are indebted during the winter, and in the summer we smooth out, » said Šiauliai St. Saulius Matulis, pastor of George Parish.
A proposal to churches to ease this heating burden in the Seimas. It is desired to equate religious communities to household electricity and gas consumers, as churches are now attributed to businesses that pay 21 percent. value added tax.
“They should not be recognized as business entities, because they do not carry out activities, they do not form anyone, they have to survive the building from the residents, and where the paintings and repairs are still. Everything comes into one, ”emphasized Daiva Petkevičienė, a member of the Seimas.
If the Seimas approve the amendments, the churches would pay for the electricity and gas consumed for heating as all residents – VAT. According to the priests, it would be right and would help save.
« The church is out of the victims, and the faithful have already paid taxes to the state, which is what additional taxation may be, » the church pastor resented.
“As you know, our faithful are seniors of honorable age. In fact, we seem to pay double rates because they drop that money from retirement, ”Matulis said.
Full LNK Report – In Video:
Šiauliai residents are greeted in two ways. Not everyone is concerned with the donations and their use in the church.
However, according to the priests, everyone likes the warmth. The church wants to feel comfortable, but unfortunately it is expensive.
“How can we be equated with business, for it is a faith, a prayer. Probably the state should create conditions that would be favorable, because no one is uncomfortable to come where it is cold, ”emphasized Šiauliai St. Pastor of George Parish.
“It is important for people, especially in old age: there are joints, diseases, there are young children. Just would like to live in a civilized manner, ”said GA Jonikas.
In addition, the money saved for heating would be spent elsewhere. Some might take repairs, others would help the poor.
“We feed the poor. So why can't we direct that money to social assistance? It would be much more important than that money, as they say, who go through the chimney, ”the pastor emphasized.
MPs initiating amendments to the Seimas emphasize villages and their small churches, but almost all of them have no heating at all. So the little church would continue to have to be cold in winter.
