AP: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

  • Thread starter Thread starter Victoria33
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
V

Victoria33

Guest

AP: Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B​

By REESE DUNKLIN and MICHAEL REZENDEStoday

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.

The church’s haul may have reached – or even exceeded – $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found.

Houses of worship and faith-based organizations that promote religious beliefs aren’t usually eligible for money from the U.S. Small Business Administration. But as the economy plummeted and jobless rates soared, Congress let faith groups and other nonprofits tap into the Paycheck Protection Program, a $659 billion fund created to keep Main Street open and Americans employed.
Click to expand...
More at link. Pretty interesting.

If someone already posted this and I see it, I will close this one.
 
Hmm. Lots of innuendo here.

Tell me. Have churches throughout the US dioceses been more or less closed for months, currently open according to state guidelines with small capacity, few offering weddings, christenings, baptisms, First Eucharist?

Have employees of churches and church schools not had their places of employment closed? Have not these people been on long furloughs or lost their jobs?

IOW, aren’t there people employed by various church groups throughout the diocese who have either lost jobs or had hours cut, just as with ‘secular’ groups?

What is supposed to happen to them?
Don’t they matter?
 
Frankly, they matter more. I can’t say I’m not biased though, the parish Secretary Cindy is a very nice lady.
 
The church takes money from a government that then controls them.
 
I’m happy that the church, which I support, got government aid in order to pay its employees. Journalists fussing about it will not change that. Journalists generally hate the church and like to fuss. I don’t care.
 
The media is overwhelmingly progressive and anti-Christian. Their opinion is worthless in this regard.
 
Well, Corona has caused real problems…our parish priest was saying at the last Sunday Mass, they desperately needed lecterns and ushers.

So, if this is happening, how about financial offerings? I’ll bet they are having some problems.

So, yes, ideally, one could say, “well, we don’t want government money” but maybe the Churches really have taken a financial hit.

Anyway, if one wanted to get to the bottom of this, maybe the Catholic Register, EWTN and whatever your favorite Catholic media is would be a place to look for more information.

Some churches really, really probably need quite a bit of finance to keep going, to keep the building in operating condition, to maintain.

And if you are talking about absolute historic buildings! That might really take some doing. I think one of the articles I read referenced St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

In fact, $1.4 billion dollars, to where?? If that means from Maine to California, sure, it is still a lot of money but if it gets truly passed around to Churches, who knows? Maybe it isn’t that much.
 
Last edited:
I know my own archdiocese is sitting on millions of dollars which they’ve cleverly put in investment funds. Meanwhile a nearby Church had to lay off a deacon and a woman near retirement.
 
Last edited:
No it was something else. I don’t recall the details and I read about it over a year ago. I’ll have to search around to see what it was.
 
The Church pays payroll taxes just like every other employer. Those people who would have lost their jobs without this money would have had to go on unemployment.
 
The church married the state. It has done so with marriage, with political funding that has hampered its voice on issues such as abortion and now, it runs like “any other business”. I learned decades ago that money from my mother came with serious strings attached. That’s why I never take it now.
 
I am trying to figure out why employees of parishes and schools should have been so severely penalized just because they worked for the Church. The money was intended for, and used for employee salaries.
 
Mrchatsworth said:
The church takes money from a government that then controls them.
Click to expand...
This money pays your school teachers, parish secretaries, RE coordinators, music ministers, hospital chaplaincy teams, archivists, church caretakers, and youth ministers just to name a few. Then there’s the priests…

The way the Church is organised means that, while parishes are separate legal entities for the purposes of Canon Law, this distinction isn’t recognised (or at least not as evident) when it comes to civil law. So while the money may be paid to the diocese, it’s accepted on behalf of the parishes (and other entities).

Parishes are almost exclusively dependent on what’s put in the collection plate (or bank account). No masses, combined with increasing unemployment creates a dire situation especially for those that were already struggling given that the bills keep on coming in. Many of those in jobs listed above will have families or, at the very least, bills of their own to pay. I’m quite sure they don’t have a problem with the Church accepting the money.

While dioceses have investments and other income, the amount the get in “tax” from the parishes’ collections still makes up a sizeable proportion of their income. With no masses, this is obviously a problem for dioceses and parishes alike - so much so that my own diocese gave all parishes a tax break since no one can give what they do not have!

When it comes down to it, the Church pays taxes just like everyone else - why shouldn’t they be able to take money in a time of need?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top