Oslo diocese fined for inflating membership figures
November 29, 2016
The Diocese of Oslo, Norway, has been ordered to pay a fine of one million kroner (about $117,000), for inflating statistics on the number of registered Catholics in the diocese.
The fine represents a sharp reduction of the original complaint against the diocese. Government officials had charged that the Oslo diocese obtained nearly $6 million in state subsidies by routinely registering immigrants as Catholics if they came from predominantly Catholic countries, without obtaining any evidence of the immigrants’ actual affiliations. The government charged that of the 65,500 new Catholics registered by the Oslo diocese between 2010 and 2014, more than 56,000 were not confirmed as Catholics.
Diocesan officials have conceded that the membership records were “unsatisfactory,” but denied engaging in any outright fraud. “This was cleared up long ago,” a spokesman said.
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Further information:
- Norway's Catholic Church fined for fraud over membership (AFP)
- Norway lodges $5 million fraud claim against Oslo diocese for inflating membership figures (CWN, 7/3/15)
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Posted by: space15796 -
Dec. 01, 2016 9:34 AM ET USA
We hosted an exchange student from this country and that was the first I'd heard that government pays the church based on head counts. Why on earth would anyone think anything good would come of this arrangement?
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Posted by: [email protected] -
Nov. 29, 2016 7:34 PM ET USA
Fraud. Another notch the church can be proud of. This is the what happens when government and Church hold hands.
