Combining Mammon and Caesar with the Church is ever a recipe for disaster.
Taking Caesar’s Coin
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
The Government should provide zero funding for religious endeavors not matter how worthy and noble, no matter which Church, Jurisdiction, or Denomination. When it comes to money, Church and State truly do need to be separate.
LQC, Amen.
Some suggestions:
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(1) The Bishops would do nearly everyone a favor by dissolving the USCCB. The injured parties would be limited to the conference staff.
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(2) Private corporations (commercial and philanthropic) should receive payments from public agencies and government corporations under the following circumstances:
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(a) They placed a sealed bid on a government contract and won the contract.
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(b) Households which were the beneficiaries of vouchers distributed by the government or insurance programs erected by the government selected a particular provider who was then re-imbursed by the agency running the insurance or voucher program.
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(c) They were engaged in providing hands-on services in the midst of a disaster and their activities were not replicable in real time by public agencies.
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(3) Every corporation (commercial, philanthropic, governmental) borrows on its own account and when insolvent repairs to the bankruptcy courts (the federal and state governments excepted). No corporation is to be the beneficiary of rescues financed by public treasuries except (i) as is necessary to prevent or contain bank runs and the like or (ii) in the event of a natural disaster or war damage.
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(4) Outside of natural disasters and the like, private parties which provide goods and services which can be purchased with government vouchers or government insurance are not to be bullied into providing goods or services they ordinarily would not, not to be bullied to set their custom contrary to their preferences (natural monopolies, providers of medical services, and providers of services specifically for travelers excepted), and not to be bullied in regard to their hiring practices outside of an expectation that certain personnel have apposite occupational licenses.
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(5) The notion that ‘refugees’ were streaming across the border during the period running from 2021 to 2025 is 99% nonsense. These were destination shoppers who were invited by Democratic Party officialdom in order to seed the vote farm. Charitable agencies should not be squandering their donation and endowment streams on this project. Let relatives of the destination shoppers look after them and insist the DNC do so if the relatives cannot or will not.
(6) Beyond the activities of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and it’s analogues in state government and the activities of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, governments do not guarantee loans or obligations.
(7) Bar in wretched circumstances (1931-41), the only government lender should be the central bank.
the USCCB… a bureaucracy that demands adherence and has no canonical authority… an organization that forces individual bishops to get in line behind whatever the “spokesperson” says… takes large amounts of money from the government for one party’s nefarious purposes of sedition, control of elections through handouts to demographics… out right replacement of Americans.. and wraps it all in “care for the migrants”.
what could go wrong???
One of the worst decisions ever was to delegate decision making to “episcopal conferences”. I get why on paper it was done, but as stated by others, all it did was render the Church into ugly bureaucracy.
Like the fools at 3211 4th St. NE Washington, DC actually know what is needed at the parish levels in Hawaii, New Mexico, or Florida.
“Always remember Judas Iscariot was a bishop, the first bishop to accept a government grant. I believe it was 30 pieces of silver. They’ve upped the ante nowadays, though.”
~ Dr. Peter Kreeft
Note the column in which the $180M appears.
*Without Donor Restrictions*
That means, to be spent as the USCCB sees fit. Otherwise it would be in the same column as national collections (ex. retired priests, foreign missions etc)
Let that sink in – $180M supposedly NOT restricted by the donor (the US government)!
Catholic Charities gets the largest part of its funding from various government agencies. Some are worthwhile, disaster relief, and some are questionable, assistance to to illegal aliens. The fact that they are mixed should be a red flag.
Of course, the usual comment “you take the king’s shilling, you dance the king’s tune” applies.
Actually, taking tax payer’s hard earned tax dollars without a referendum asking the owners of the tax money and getting permission from them is essential. Otherwise it is slavery.
Tax dollars belong to the tax payers even while the money is used to build roads, hospitals, schools, and all else including compensation for judges, police and Congress.
Already Congress and the politicians are giving themselves raises without the owners of the moneys’ permission. Here, the Democrats have given themselves a 2% raise without referendum,. Next time it will be 8%.
This is not self government.
I think we can safely constrict that $82M (line 2) and pinch some of that $12M (line 1) and see how they operate.
There was a column in my diocesan newspaper bemoaning the loss of USAID funding. Pretty standard leftist boilerplate about how people will die in greater numbers unless it is restored. Not a single cent should be further stolen.
The pass through is real, so slow the role (except for the question of how much should society provide for the care that it traditionally has not provided); but the destination of that pass through is also real. Without throwing out any baby with bathwater, focus on the latter.
Funds are almost never all “passed through”. I am sure the USCCB took a cut for “administrative expenses”. Of course this begs the question of why the USCCB was aiding the prior administration in the human trafficking of millions of illegals into our country.