The church has to pay the fine because employees of the diocese used the telephone directory to find people with Catholic-sounding names. Then they obtained their personal identification numbers illegally and recorded them as members of the church for receiving state aid.
– The church received state aid for people who were not really members, says chief public prosecutor Kristian Jarland to NRK.
Meanwhile, accusations against Bishop Bernt Eidsvig were dismissed as there was no evidence that he had direct involvement with the fraud.
Â
Comments
