Outsourcing prayers to India

The Vatican has been doing it for a few years now - outsourcing mostly to churches in the state of Kerala. As of 2004, the Vatican would apparently charge $5 to Americans (less for others) to have a priest pray for you, and then outsource it to priests in Kerala. The most common requests outsourced involve saying Mass for "special intentions," or requests for services like those to remember deceased relatives and thanksgiving prayers - at least says the NY Times.

Purgatory has always been good business - remember those sales of indulgences, the ones that got Martin Luther hot under his clerical collar? I wonder how long governments will continue to ignore the fact that religion is a multi-billion dollar business, and should be regulated and taxed appropriately? Of course, like lots of big businesses, religions are quite skilled at lobbying governments to preserve their ability to use taxpayer dollars for their own purposes...