RE: Catholic churches profit under COVID PPP
February 23, 2021 at 10:30 am
(This post was last modified: February 23, 2021 at 10:30 am by Redstar.)
(February 5, 2021 at 6:41 pm)brewer Wrote: While small businesses in the US suffer left and right, some closing, the catholic church actually increases their operating funds. This is just wrong.
Quote:Overall, the nation’s nearly 200 dioceses, where bishops and cardinals govern, and other Catholic institutions received at least $3 billion. That makes the Roman Catholic Church perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the paycheck program, according to AP’s analysis of data the U.S. Small Business Administration released following a public-records lawsuit by news organizations
Why is it wrong? Surely either every organisation & employee should receive aid, or none?
Aid in the Church's case is to replace income from donations, just as it is to replace income from profit in the case of a business - in both cases so that they can continue to operate, when the pandemic is over.
If organisations had to rely on their own cash reserves or selling assets, many of them would go under.
The people who are benefiting from this are not clergymen, but teachers, nursers, doctors, office workers, staff members etc who work in the Church's various institutions.
Those workers surely have the same rights under US law and the same recourse to the US Government, as all other workers, regardless of employs them.
The article actually contains an example of an unnamed priest refusing to apply for aid money because, after juggling his finances, felt that he did not need to, which shows that not everyone views Government aid as a 'free for all'.