Evangelical Focus had an interesting article on how evangelical churches are hindered in Italy, a country that has been dominated by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries, but nevertheless provides religious freedom.
In 2016, Pastor Leonardo De Chirico and his congregation Breccia di Roma decided to purchase a storefront property in Rome’s historic district to use as a church.
The problems started almost immediately when he went to the bank for a loan. Leonardo was told that before the bank could approve the loan, he needed to have the local Roman Catholic bishop actually provide a signature approving the purchase.
It was unheard of that the Roman Catholic Church had to give its approval for an evangelical church to get a bank loan. Fortunately, at that point, they were able to get a loan from a non-bank source that did not demand the signature of Pope Francis who is officially the Bishop of Rome.
The next step involved getting permission from city authorities to rezone the building as it was being converted from a commercial property to a nontaxable church.
The city gave its approval after the church paid a €6,000 fee to rezone the building.
However, the difficulties started when Italy’s national tax agency became involved and decided to send an agent to inspect the building.
The agency rejected the building’s status as a church because it did not look like a Roman Catholic Church as it lacked the “intrinsic characteristics of religious buildings.” It did not contain such things as statues of Mary and the saints. It did not have prayer candles or an altar.
This forced the evangelical church to hire a lawyer to appeal the decision to a court of law, which they won.
However, the agency appealed that decision forcing the church to fight the decision in court again.
During the second court case, Breccia‘s lawyer showed images of mosques, synagogues and churches, including Roman Catholic facilities, that the agency had approved which lacked the characteristics of a Roman Catholic Church.
When the agency lost this second court case, it appealed the decision to Italy’s Supreme Court, forcing the evangelical church to rehire the lawyer for a third court battle that is still ongoing.
The church has so far paid over €12,000 in legal fees and believes it is meeting a heightened resistance because the building is in Rome, the homeland of Catholicism in Italy.
OpentheWord.org 
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