【英语语言学习】西班牙语的教会

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

 

Across Europe, bankrupt municipalities are looking for new sources of revenue and some are eyeing the Catholic Church. In Spain, the church is the country's largest and richest landowner, but its non-profit status means it's exempt¹ from paying most taxes. Lauren Frayer takes us now to a college town near Madrid that's trying to change that.

 

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE²: Off a cobblestone street in Alcala de Henares, an ancient Roman town about 20 miles from Madrid, there is a 400-year-old convent, El Convento de Clarisas de San Diego. If you ring the doorbell, one of the nuns⁴ calls out from behind a wooden shutter⁵.

 

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Ave Maria Purissima.

 

FRAYER: Ave Maria Purissima, Holy Mary, the most pure, she yells, by way of answering the bell. Then, you place your order.

 

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)

 

FRAYER: Good afternoon, this customer says. May I have four boxes of roasted almonds, please?

 

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Foreign language spoken)

 

FRAYER: That'll be 19 euros - about $25 - the nun³ says, shoving four delicately wrapped almond tins through a turnstile. In addition to prayer and charity, the nuns here run a side business selling candied almonds from this tiny window in their convent. Their vow⁶ of chastity means they cannot be seen in public, so they sell their goodies through a rotating wooden screen.

 

The nuns' profits from their almond enterprise are probably meager⁷, but that's beside the point, say some local lawmakers. The nuns are using at least part of this convent for commercial purposes, and for that, they must pay.

 

COUNCILMAN ANSELMO AVENDANO: (Through Translator) We're studying whether any church properties that have been long listed as charities are actually being used for commercial activities. If that's the case, they'll have to start paying tax.

 

FRAYER: City Councilman Anselmo Avendano passed a motion last summer to re-evaluate church holdings by square footage. So if one out of 30 rooms in a convent is selling sweets, it'll have to pay tax on that one room. That's how the system is supposed to work already, but it's not always enforced. Alcala's campaign has ruffled⁸ feathers on high.

 

PRIME MINISTER MARIANO RAJOY: (Foreign language spoken)

 

FRAYER: I insist we will not denounce an international agreement. It would be irresponsible, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told reporters last year. He says any efforts to press the church for more tax violate a 1979 treaty with the Vatican. On one side of this disagreement are cash-strapped municipalities and on the other, centuries of tradition. Councilman Avendano says he's a Catholic himself.

 

AVENDANO: (Through Translator) We're not questioning the church's good works: charity for the elderly or poor or ill. We're not criticizing that at all. What we want is to re-examine property the church uses to make a profit. For example, rental⁹ apartments, parking lots and garages that it owns. Those are businesses.

 

FRAYER: The Catholic Church owns about half of this city. Sometimes people die and leave their house or business to the church, which then becomes the landlord. Another councilman, Ricardo Rubio, takes me on a walking tour of church holdings in town.

 

COUNCILMAN RICARDO RUBIO ALCALA DE HENARES: (Through Translators) Some of the Catholic schools have swimming pools, and they charge a fee to area residents to swim there on weekends. So the school should be paying tax on that activity. But they haven't been.

 

FRAYER: Incidentally, we're walking down Calle Tercio, One-Third Street. The name dates back to the Middle Ages when vendors¹⁰ here were required to give one-third of their profits to the Catholic Church. Nowadays, there's a different tax man in town who happens to be broke. The city of Alcala de Henares is $400 million in debt.

 

Meanwhile, if the Catholic Church had to pay tax on all its property in Spain, it could owe up to $4 billion a year. Juanjo Pico, a spokesman for Europa Laica, a Spanish group that lobbies for the separation of church and state.

 

JUANJO PICO: (Through Translator) These days, towns are cutting their budgets for health care, education, infrastructure¹¹ and welfare. But the Catholic Church hasn't had to make a single cut because it gets money from the state.

 

FRAYER: When Spaniards file their tax returns, they can check a box to donate money to the church and the state deducts¹² it automatically. That and the church's tax breaks are coming under scrutiny¹³. But church officials question why this seems to be only about them.

 

FERNANDO GIMENEZ BARRIOCANAL: (Through Translator) Why isn't this debate about all non-profit groups?

 

FRAYER: Fernando Gimenez Barriocanal is the financial director at Spain's Council of Bishops¹⁴. He says the church has the same tax deal as the Red Cross and other NGOs. He also hints at what could happen if the Catholic Church were to have to pay more.

 

BARRIOCANAL: (Through Translator) Obviously, we'd have to direct more of our money to pay those taxes. The church would still want to help those in need, but we'd have less money to do that.

 

FRAYER: The church may be Spain's biggest landowner, but it's also the biggest charity here, at a time when public welfare programs are being cut and unemployment tops 26 percent. The Alcala town council aims to complete its land survey by the end of the year and possibly serve the Catholic Church with a slightly updated tax bill. For NPR News, I'm Lauren Frayer, in Madrid.

1 exempt   

adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者

参考例句：

• These goods are exempt from customs duties.这些货物免征关税。
• He is exempt from punishment about this thing.关于此事对他已免于处分。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 nun   

n.修女，尼姑

参考例句：

• I can't believe that the famous singer has become a nun.我无法相信那个著名的歌星已做了修女。
• She shaved her head and became a nun.她削发为尼。

4 nuns   

n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ah Q had always had the greatest contempt for such people as little nuns. 小尼姑之流是阿Q本来视如草芥的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Nuns are under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 修女须立誓保持清贫、贞洁、顺从。 来自辞典例句

5 shutter   

n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置

参考例句：

• The camera has a shutter speed of one-sixtieth of a second.这架照像机的快门速度达六十分之一秒。
• The shutter rattled in the wind.百叶窗在风中发出嘎嘎声。

6 vow   

n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓

参考例句：

• My parents are under a vow to go to church every Sunday.我父母许愿，每星期日都去做礼拜。
• I am under a vow to drink no wine.我已立誓戒酒。

7 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

8 ruffled   

adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She ruffled his hair affectionately. 她情意绵绵地拨弄着他的头发。
• All this talk of a strike has clearly ruffled the management's feathers. 所有这些关于罢工的闲言碎语显然让管理层很不高兴。

9 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

10 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

11 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

12 deducts   

v.扣除，减去( deduct的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• At the time negotiation, the local bank deducts the loan and the interest. 议付时，当地银行扣除先前的贷款和利息。 来自辞典例句
• After commissariat is sold, cooperation deducts cost, return money to every farmer. 在粮食销售之后，合作社扣除成本，把钱退还给每个农户。 来自互联网

13 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

14 bishops   

（基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象

参考例句：

• Each player has two bishops at the start of the game. 棋赛开始时，每名棋手有两只象。
• "Only sheriffs and bishops and rich people and kings, and such like. “他劫富济贫，抢的都是郡长、主教、国王之类的富人。