Catholic church in Iowa, state's biggest religious organization, got $50 million from COVID-19 bailo

[SharonClark]

As a taxpayer, this infuriates me.

The Catholic Church apparently is Iowa's largest recipient of money from the federal Paycheck Protection Program intended to help small businesses, a Des Moines Register review of the program shows.

The finding comes as a new investigation by the Associated Press shows that the U.S. arm of the church received at least $3 billion through the forgivable loan program, even as many dioceses remained financially healthy.

In Iowa, the church's total was more than $50 million, including more than $40 million for the components for the four Catholic dioceses and $8.7 million more that went to four Catholic colleges controlled by other church entities.

Those state and national totals appear to make a church with thousands of employees in Iowa alone the largest beneficiary — both statewide and nationally — of a program intended to help companies with fewer than 500 employees pay workers as the COVID-19 pandemic raged last summer. . . .

Iowa's more than 500,000 practicing Catholics make up the state’s largest religious denomination, according to the U.S. Religion Census, accounting for roughly 1 in 3 Iowa churchgoers,

The total the Paycheck Protection Program paid to the dioceses was roughly the same as to all other recipients listing themselves as religious organizations, combined. Without special treatment, the Catholic Church would not have received nearly so much, the AP found. . . .

Catholic officials lobbied the Trump administration to free religious organizations from the so-called affiliation rule that typically disqualifies applicants with more than 500 workers from being treated as a small business.

Without that break, many diocese would have missed out because — between their head offices, parishes, schools and other affiliates — their employee count would exceed the limit.

The Rev. James Connell, a former administrator in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, was among the experts who reviewed the findings of the AP investigation, and questioned why the church sought the exemption.

“Was it want or need? Need must be present, not simply the want," Connell told the AP. "Justice and love of neighbor must include the common good."

Connell said the AP’s findings convinced him that Catholic entities did not need government aid — especially when thousands of small businesses were permanently closing. . . .

More at: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2021/02/11/iowa-catholic-church-got-pandemic-aid-meant-for-small-businesses-covid-paycheck-protection/4382101001/

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin' with disgust!

[bullimiami]

2. disgusting and corrupt. you could have given 100,000 to 500 actual very small businesses.

[hamsterjill]

3. This is what's wrong with the world.

Our tax dollars should not be supporting religious organizations who say they will then support citizens and then don’t.

Our tax dollars should directly support citizens with no middle man.

End. Of. Story.