Posted on 07/25/2014 8:28:22 AM PDT by markomalley
Phil Lawler at CatholicCulture.org voices what should be obvious: that by taking federal money and grants, the Catholic Church has put herself in a very awkward place. Money from the government always comes with strings attached, and those strings have tied the hands of too many Catholics.
Earlier this week, President Obama handed down an executive order that requires the cutting off of government funds from “any organizations that discriminate against homosexual or ‘transgendered’ persons. This executive order is not aimed solely at the Catholic Church; many others will lose federal contracts.” The U.S. Catholic bishops have opposed this move, but since Obama did this as executive “fiat” it is hardly something one can legally oppose. That’s okay, says Lawler.
So how can the Church respond? That’s easy. Stop taking federal contracts. President Obama doesn’t want help from the Catholic Church. Say it’s a deal; don’t give him any.
What would that mean, practically speaking? It would mean things would get really messy, especially in terms of health care, human services, and services to the poor.
Let’s just take one major issue: those children flooding over the southern border. The US bishops’ office of Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) estimates that about 90,000 unaccompanied minors will arrive in the US this year—up from an average of under 7,000 in previous years. The federal government is already straining to provide shelter for these children while their cases are processed. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if “the largest resettlement agency in the United States”—the bishops’ MRS office—withdrew from that effort.
But you might ask: What would happen to all those vulnerable children, if the US bishops didn’t help? It’s a good question. Whatever one might think about how and why the young migrants are pouring across the border, the fact remains that something must be done with them. Could the Church help to give them temporary shelter and support, while we wait for their cases to percolate through the immigration machinery?
And when we ask that question, we bump into an inconvenient truth about the bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services. The last latest annual report from the MRS shows a total budget of just under $71 million, of which nearly $66 million—or nearly 93%—came from federal grants and contracts. For every dollar MRS raised in private donations, more than $1,000 came directly from Uncle Sam.
The budgets for these programs provided by the Church would indeed shrink, but if that’s what Obama wants, maybe that’s exactly what he should get. As the Rev. Robert Sirico has pointed out, “There’s the threat that he who drinks the king’s wine sings the king’s song.” The Church needs to step away from the federal wine casks; it’s clearly soured.
Read “Obama’s executive order and the danger of reliance on federal contracts” at CatholicCulture.org.
Absolutely on the money.
Take federal money and the feds will soon own you.
This guy says ‘give it back and let them feel the pain of your being gone.’
That is not the reason to give up taking federal money. You give it up to preserve your independence. Or you decide that the money or more important than violating the millennia old teachings of the Lord and of the Church.
Both groups that have taken illegal aliens in Michigan are “Christian” social service groups and both are getting big money from the taxpayers.
Collective salvation is no salvation at all. Christians aren’t saved by taking taxpayer money to help someone else no matter how morally superior they may feel and the taxpayers aren’t saved by being forced to help others. God saves individuals who make a conscious choice to do good and seek salvation.
Learn from the Boy Scouts. No doubt the nice offices, high salaries and perks paid for by Fortune 100 companies was nice, but when they decided to support the homosexual agenda, you were trapped.
Any church taking money from the Government is making a deal with the devil.
Faith of Our Fathers ping
More precisely, FedGov needs to be shrunk to the point where there is no money for the church to take.
I have been saying this to other Catholics I know. I don’t know if it’s naivete or stupidity, greed,or can’t we all just get along, but the Bishops thinking you can make a deal with the Devil, and come out ahead is insanity.
Fr Sirico said: “There’s the threat that he who drinks the king’s wine sings the king’s song.”
What I've always said: with shekels come shackles.
... Notwithstanding it is illegal meddling of enstate inside the church.
The fantasy that Christian Charity was served by merging with government programs has never worked in the past and never will. It was the urge to go along to get along that led to the Catholic Church going down that path to begin with.
The Church had always run charities with the time and money from the faithful to whatever extent there were faithful who were generous with both, not to the extent government reins would make possible and that's what the Church should still be doing.
JMHO
I think that the Church has already left the adoption business in Massachusetts because they refused to do same sex parents adoption.
The problem is that it's not the government forcing its way into the Church.
It is the Church inviting the government in.
I say this because any contract, either between the government and a company, or between two business entities, has terms and conditions associated with that contract.
In the case of federal contracts, those terms and conditions are outlined in the Federal Acquisition Regulation.
In this particular case, the terms and conditions are listed in FAR Part 22.
The reason why it's not government meddling is that nobody forces the Church to sign that contract.
(NB: Please Note: I am not saying the above to defend the government (I'm not). Imposing this is plain evil. But it shouldn't be imposed on anybody, not just the Church. If the Church, knowing that this FAR clause exists, signs contracts to perform services with the government, particularly as long as this EO exists, then, in truth, it's the Church's fault)
All these churches should have a little faith that God will provide.
The American branch of the Roman Catholic Church has sold out to American liberals that they are powerless.
Just look at who gets communion.
"He who pays the piper, calls the tune."
Different issue. An undocumented/illegal child in need of food, water, and shelter is not the same as a state trying to force my Church to facilitate an adoption by two men of a child. The argument can be made that the Church is called to do the first but forbidden to do the second. I may disagree with the Church taking that money but if I go to my parish church and learn that there are a dozen children being housed in the basement, I’m not going to storm out and refuse to return. If however, my parish priest starts performing same sex “marriages” I’m going to start looking for somewhere else to worship God.
I was opposed to the “Faith based initiative” for exactly this reason.
Does this mean that we close down all Catholic hospitals? It’d be tough to assist folks, especially poor folks, if these hospitals couldn’t receive reimbursement for services from government-provided health insurance.
Does this mean all Catholic colleges and universities would stop accepting students with Pell grants and federal student loans?
What about Catholic secondary schools that obtain state aid to pay for things like textbooks, bus transportation, or lunch for poor children?
I’d do away with all the above government programs, but as long as those programs exist, it would be difficult (read: pretty darned near impossible) to run hospitals, colleges, and schools without participating in them.
It was a whole host of evangelicals went running to Barack asking for the exemption. People like L. Roy Taylor, Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church in America; Dr. Michael K. Le Roy, President, Calvin College; and hundreds more.
The entire list of hundreds is here: http://www.nae.net/images/content/Letter_to_President_on_Executive_Order_06-25-14.pdf
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