Yesterday 6th November marked the start of the first stage of the advertising campaign that the Spanish Church is promoting to raise public awareness of the new funding scheme covered by an agreement between the Spanish state and the Holy See dated December 2006. Under the agreement, the allocated Irpf tax will rise from 0.5 to 0.7% and VAT exemption will be removed, so the devotees are called to become more responsible and will have to express their support of the Church in their tax returns. The first stage of the campaign will last one month, with TV commercials, press coverage and the Internet providing information about the news of the agreement between Spain and the Holy See. In the next few weeks, the TV commercials will also tell real stories of priests, religious and lay men and women who carry out the mission of the Church in different spheres. The campaign, explains a note from the Spanish Bishops Conference, "shows that the Catholic Church is part of the daily life of our country" and many devotees working within the Christian communities carry out "a discreet and often neglected work which however is essential for the common good of society".
