NEW YORK — 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.
By aggressively promoting the payroll program and marshaling resources to help affiliates navigate its shifting rules, Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools and other ministries have so far received approval for at least 3,500 forgivable loans, AP found.
The Archdiocese of New York, for example, received 15 loans worth at least $28 million just for its top executive offices. Its iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was approved for at least $1 million.
In Orange County, California, where a sparkling glass cathedral estimated to cost over $70 million recently opened, diocesan officials working at the complex received four loans worth at least $3 million.
[italics added] If a separation of church and state lawsuit were to be filed reaching this current Supreme Court, how would you guess the result and what odds would you give? Recent decisions as they are? Any guess at Joe Biden's feelings on that money going that way?
UPDATE: The item is a lengthy, detailed factual report where, several paragraphs after the above quote it was reported:
CASHING IN FAST
After its lobbying blitz, the Catholic Church worked with parishes and schools to access the money.
Many dioceses -- from large ones such as the Archdiocese of Boston to smaller ones such as the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin -- assembled how-to guides to help their affiliates apply. The national Catholic fiscal conference also hosted multiple webinars with legal and financial experts to help coach along local leaders.
Federal data show that the bulk of the church’s money was approved during the loan program’s first two weeks. That’s when demand for the first-come, first-served assistance was so high that the initial $349 billion was quickly exhausted, shutting out many local businesses.
Overall, nearly 500 loans approved to Catholic entities exceeded $1 million each. The AP found that at least eight hit the maximum range of $5 million to $10 million. Many of the listed recipients were the offices of bishops, headquarters of leading religious orders, major churches, schools and chapters of Catholic Charities.
Also among recipients was the Saint Luke Institute. The Catholic treatment center for priests accused of sexual abuse and those suffering from other disorders received a loan ranging from $350,000 to $1 million. Based in Silver Spring, Maryland, the institute has at times been a way station for priests accused of sexual abuse who returned to active ministry only to abuse again.
[italics added] Taxpayer money. Are you awaiting accountability, or just shrugging your shoulders waiting for November? And don't you despise theater lines where some feel privileged to cut in front of you in line? Me firsters, damn the rest?
FURTHER: Meritorious Covid-19 impacted small businesses slow on pulling the trigger are not the only entities suffering while Jesus jockeys reaped billions. This local-content Strib report documents more small business owners neglected by the Trump/pence - Congressional - administrative-agency hanky-panky bullshit. Mark Dayton after his one Senate term where he declined to run again did call DC "a cesspool." Does any reader have a different view, given 1980 and onward? "Crooked as a ram's horn" is a phrase I recall my mother using from time to time. Some say, " . . . as a dog's hind leg." Whatever the metaphor, the implication is explicit.
FURTHER: Nark Dayton. For something being "a cesspool" to him must really be bad; given how he early in his first term along with Republican state leadership used shutdown diversionary worry to kill his "Tax the Rich" campaign promising. Words are cheap. Mark Datyon, who was Tina Smith's trampoline into the U.S. of A. Senate after Franken got jobbed. We live in interesting times.
FURTHER: With all the inflation the government's up to, cheapening the dollar by flooding them out the door to friends, the Trump-voting white old farts will wake up and look at retirement savings dwindling in real value while the young face wage freeze with prices soaring, and folks will ask, "Who took the money, who took the money away?" Wondering, how it does not make sense. Poetry in song allows lyrics to mean different things to different people, except to Republicans who only understand Frank Sinatra. Lovable Republican puffballs.
Something sobering in a passing reference in the earlier linked Strib Twin Cites - FEMA report, this:
While there are no recent examples of FEMA aiding cities hit by rioting, its response in 1992 to Los Angeles was a major counterexample. Within a week of the riots, President George H.W. Bush had declared Los Angeles a federal disaster area, and within a month the government began distributing $638 million in assistance to the city, according to the New York Times. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $1.2 billion in today’s dollars.
In 2015, however, FEMA, under the Obama administration, denied aid to the state of Maryland after rioting in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who died in police custody. Maryland appealed the decision and was again rejected.
Besides impeaching the myth of Obama, friend of the people and their suffering, that excerpt does say from 1992 to today the dollar had been jobbed to half its 1992 value! And wages kept up, yes/no? We do live in interesting times. Governed by kind-hearted, wise rulers. Two parties, so cast your vote: One Tweedle or the other. As Heller wrote, Everybody owns a share.