Theory 2 Action Podcast
Theory 2 Action Podcast
MM#391--Washington's Way, pt 2--the Intersection of Rome and Washington
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Show notes:
Can Catholic charities maintain their spiritual mission while navigating the tangled web of government funding?
On this MOJO Minute podcast, we grapple with this pressing question as we dissect the historical and ongoing relationship between Catholic organizations and the U.S. government. From tracing the roots of government financial support since the 1960s to spotlighting the contentious 2019 audit of Catholic Charities of San Antonio, we uncover the layers of potential misuse and mismanagement. The episode takes a hard look at President Trump's USAID funding freeze and its ripple effect on Catholic relief efforts, sparking a broader discussion on the fine line between fulfilling spiritual missions and succumbing to material dependencies, guided by insights from Evangelii Nutandi, Pope Paul VI's papal encyclical.
This episode doesn't shy away from holding the mirror up to church leadership, examining the need for accountability, especially within the USCCB. Drawing parallels to a contemporary Tower of Babel, the discussion points to the unsettling alignment of church leaders with governmental influences, raising alarm bells over integrity and ownership.
We call for a collective push towards justice and transparency, appealing for prayers and support for those striving to uphold these virtues in both Washington and Rome.
**Correction: Evangeli Nutandi was not a papal encyclical but an apostolic exhortation, links to the document are provided.
Key Points from this Episode:
• Critically reassessing the reliance of Catholic charities on government funding
• President Trump's freeze on USAID impacting humanitarian efforts
• Historical rise of government funding for Catholic charities since the 1960s
• Instances of financial mismanagement and the need for accountability
• Insights from the papal encyclical "Evangelii Nuntiandi" on charity's mission
• Ethical concerns around high salaries of nonprofit executives
• The call for transparency and regular audits of charitable organizations
• Navigating the loss of spiritual focus amidst financial pressures
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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, David Kaiser. Flourishing life Now.
Speaker 2:here's your host, david Kaiser. Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute On our new day, wednesday, today's Wednesday. You're hearing this on Wednesday, so thank you for listening. We are on a new time schedule Wednesdays and Saturdays are going to be our new days. We're uploading the podcast, so thank you for coming back and listening.
Speaker 2:And last week we talked about the American Leviathan. You know, washington's administrative state, that fourth branch of government that is nowhere in the Constitution. All started way back there in Woodrow Wilson's administration and has been growing for the last 100 years and has grown into this massive, unwieldy behemoth. Now, lately we've been seeing a lot of the whining and complaining. As soon as anyone suggested we take a closer look to the books to check for waste, fraud and abuse. And now that collective meltdown has more than begun. It's in full swing now.
Speaker 2:And the one thing that really caught my attention in the last couple weeks, especially as a Roman Catholic, is the money given to Catholic relief organizations. At first it doesn't seem like an obvious area for corruption or misuse, but you dig a little deeper and start peeling back the layers and you begin to wonder hmm, is this money being spent wisely? Is this being used the best way to help those organizations who are meant to serve the public. And as things unfold, the picture starts to get a little bit more murky. So we here at the Mojo Academy we believe if you're committed to seeking the truth, we here at the Mojo Academy we believe if you're committed to seeking the truth, that means you have to be willing to examine everything, even when it hits close to home. As a Roman Catholic, we can't just say, well, this one hits way too close to us, so we're going to ignore it. That's not right, that's not doing the right thing, that's certainly not living a flourishing life, not living by the virtues. If there's corruption or misuse within the church or these organizations, we got to talk about it. So what is the story?
Speaker 2:President, donald Trump's decision to freeze USAID funding has sparked a lot of backlash. It's hitting Catholic and other faith-based humanitarian organizations quite hard. Usaid handles over $40 billion each year to support global aid development, including major Catholic charities like Catholic Relief Services, crs and Caritas International. Now, with these cuts, organizations like CRS are bracing for massive budget reductions up to 50% and Catholic leaders, including those at the Vatican, have slammed the move, calling it reckless warning it could lead to widespread poverty and even millions of deaths, spread poverty and even millions of deaths. Cardinal Michael Cerny, a close advisor to Pope Francis, called out the administration for its lack of compassion, urging them to stick to Christian values and criticizing how abruptly the funding was frozen. Now, on that quick side note here just got an update earlier today that Pope Francis has bilateral pneumonia. So we should certainly pray for the Holy Father. May I ask for your prayers for the Holy Father Certainly want his health to recovery and for him to get better. That said, meanwhile the Trump administration defended the cuts, claiming they were targeting woke programs and cutting unnecessary spending. Still, many argue that these cuts are undermining critical humanitarian efforts.
Speaker 2:Now, what's the history between Catholic charities and Catholic charitable organizations in the US government? Well, I didn't think it was that tightly wound together, but when you dig into history it gets, as I said earlier, a little murkier. Catholic charities and related organizations have been receiving US government funding since unbelievably the 1960s. By the end of that decade, about 25% of Catholic Charities' funding came from government sources, increasing to over 50% by the late 1970s and by more than 60% by the mid-1980s, where it has largely remained. That's unbelievable. This partnership expanded significantly during the war on poverty in the late 1960s, as the federal government relied on Catholic charities to provide welfare services. Now Catholic Relief Services, another major Catholic organization, began receiving US government support in the mid-1950s to aid global humanitarian efforts.
Speaker 2:So what has been the track record of some of these Catholic charities? Has there been any form of corruption in the past? Well, unbelievably as it may seem, yes, there has been instances of corruption and financial mismanagement. There has been instances of corruption and financial mismanagement. 2019, an audit of Catholic Charities of San Antonio revealed some serious financial irregularities and accounting problems. The audit found that checks over $2,500 were processed without required signatures, missing documentation for credit card purchases, missing documentation for credit card purchases. There was exaggerated valuation of in-kind donations and improper reconciliation of financial records. So this led to the Texas Veterans Commission to deny the charities request for funds due to material weaknesses in their audit. Then there's a 2015 report from the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Justice Found problems with Catholic Charities of San Antonio's handling of an $800,000 grant for human trafficking victims.
Speaker 2:Towards heavy reliance on government funding has raised concerns about the organization's independence and adherence to its original mission. So there are problems and, what I found most remarkable is, when you strip all of that away, we actually get some papal advice, encyclical Evangelii Nutandi, which directly addresses the issue of Catholic charities potentially losing sight of their spiritual mission. The Holy Father is actually somewhat prophetic in 1975 because he could see where all this was going. The encyclical warns against reducing the church's mission to merely temporal and material goals. In fact, let's grab a quote from that very encyclical.
Speaker 2:We must not ignore the fact that many, even generous Christians who are sensitive to the dramatic questions involved in the problem of liberation, in their wish to commit the church to the liberation effort, are frequently tempted to reduce her mission to the dimensions of a simple temporal project. They would reduce her aims to a man-centered goal. Salvation, of which she is the messenger, would be reduced to material well-being. Her activity, forgetful of all spiritual and religious preoccupation, would become initiatives of the political or social order. But if this were so, the church would lose her fundamental meaning. Her message of liberation would no longer have any originality and would easily be open to monopolization and manipulation by ideological systems and political parties. She would have no more authority to proclaim freedom as in the name of God.
Speaker 2:This is why we have wished to emphasize, in the same address at the opening of the Synod, the need to restate clearly the specific religious finality of evangelization. This latter would lose its reason for existence if it were to diverge from the religious axis that guides it, which is the kingdom of God before anything else, in its fully theological meaning. And that is the Holy Father, pope Paul VI, saying not so fast. Keep your focus on Christ and serving his people, not political parties and not charitable organizations, for they can get off the rails. So these papal key reminders, this encyclical's message, is partly relevant today, as some charitable albeit them Catholic organizations have been criticized for prioritizing government funding and social services over evangelization. For instance, catholic Relief Services officials have stated on the record they do not attempt to engage in discussions of faith and don't assist people to become Catholic, which appears to contradict the spiritual mission emphasized in the very encyclical we just quoted from Paul VI Evangelii Nutandi.
Speaker 2:So, with that in mind, here is a list of Catholic charity organizations and their CEO salaries, and we're getting this from a great website, the Lompato Institute, who has discovered this and has been at the forefront of this for the better part of the last six to seven years. Let's read through what these Catholic charity CEOs and their salaries are making. Catholic Charities of Baltimore the senior employee for Catholic Charities of Baltimore is William J McCarthy Jr and his salary and benefits total $510,904. Catholic Charities of New Hampshire the senior employee for their organization is Thomas Belosky and his salary and benefits total $336,785. Moving on to Catholic Charities, neighborhood Services, their top senior employee is Emma Glynn Ryan and her salary and benefits total $346,000.
Speaker 2:Catholic Charities of Fort Worth their top person Catholic Charities of Fort Worth rather Not sure if I said Fort Worth Is Christopher Plumlee, and his salary and benefits total $297,000. Catholic Charities of Chicago Top person is Sally Blount and her salary and benefits total $264,000. Catholic Charities of St Paul, minneapolis Top person Michael Gore, and his salary and benefits total $290,000. Catholic Charities, community Services. Third top person is Beatriz Diaz Tavares and her salary and benefits total $294,000. Just got four more folks. Catholic Charities of Galveston and Houston Top person, symphony Colbert. Her salary and benefits total $225,000. Catholic Charities of Syracuse Top person Lori Accardi. Her benefits total $233,000. Catholic Charities of Rochester, new York. Top person Karen Dehas, and her salary and benefits $215,000. The Catholic Charities of Trenton, new Jersey, Catholic Charities I said that of Trenton Top person is Marlene Lau Collins and her salary and benefits total $206,000.
Speaker 2:I don't begrudge anybody for making a lot of money. Certainly, as a CEO got to make some very difficult decisions, but as a nonprofit charitable organization decisions. But as a nonprofit charitable organization, not sure those salaries are commensurate with the service you're providing and with the direction and the mission that your Catholic Charities is representing, especially when you tag on the name Catholic to it. Now, again, a hat tip to the Lepanto Institute for this research and discovery. They have done great work here.
Speaker 2:And until the 20th century the Catholic Church had worked through religious orders to provide aid to the poor, health care to the sick and education to the ignorant. Catholic hospitals were filled with nuns and priests while educated in the healing arts, and the cost of health care was quite low. And then Catholic school classrooms were led by nuns and priests and even the poorest kids in the neighborhood could afford a world-class education. And the care of the world's poorest was done by missionaries who sought first the salvation of souls. They served while also working to provide food, housing and clothing, keeping in mind that our Lord gave this direction Okay, and frankly it didn't cost billions of dollars to do it.
Speaker 2:So as I was reading our book of the day last week, american Leviathan, I found all of this quite revealing and a frankly amazing coincidence. In chapter 8, ned Ryan, in that wonderful book that we grabbed some nuggets of wisdom from last week the title of chapter 8 is Building a Modern Day Babble. Now you might say, huh, what is this about David? Let's grab a quote, shall we? And it'll all come into focus.
Speaker 2:In reality, progressive statism and its administrative state are a modern-day Babel. In the book of Genesis, the story is told in which people came together to build a great tower into the heavens so that they might be like God. Through the work of their hands, by their human intellect, they would achieve transcendent perfection. Their arrogance, the arrogance of the progressive status, was just about those at Babel. They raised their tower with the administrative state, firmly convinced that they could achieve the perfectibility of humanity. The new Babel is as doomed to disaster as the first was, because times may change, centuries and millennia come and go, but one thing remains constant through the ages flawed and imperfect human nature. Isn't that so true? Human nature never, ever, ever changes, and yet the radicals on the left will try to perfect and make everything utopia. So there we go.
Speaker 2:Another nugget of wisdom. We have a modern day tower of Babel in the administrative state and we even have Catholic relief organizations leeching onto this tower of that administrative state, which is corrupt. Why? Because they can get a lot of money, a lot of money that was ultimately not serving those people most in need let's be frank and direct At least not serving the whole organization very well when a lot of money is going to CEOs in very large amounts.
Speaker 2:One of the most true lines I've read about this whole sordid affair is this Quote a very wise priest told me, commenting on the exorbitant salaries of those doing charity, quote unquote. That priest said very often people start off doing good and end up doing well, end quote. No truer words have been spoken about this particular subject. So, as the light shines on the whole modern day tower of Babel, we should all say no matter how much it hurts, clean up the corruption, eliminate the waste and the fraud, shine a light into all the cracks and the crevices. The American people are a very generous people, but justice must be enacted and waste, fraud and abuse must be eliminated and corrected.
Speaker 2:And I find it very disheartening and disappointed that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the US CCB, issued a response and criticisms, issued a response and criticisms, and even JD Vance, vice President JD Vance, was right to express his disappointment in that conference. They responded to all this with criticism and concerns about their government funding drying up. Frankly, I have so many talking points to go over about the USCCB and as I look at it, I'm just shaking my head Because all of these quotes are just rubbish. They're just rubbish and they smell of corruption. So let us pray for our Catholic Conference of Bishops as well. Not sure they're in it for the right reasons, especially for migrant and refugee services, but let's shine a light there as well and get to the bottom of it. So in today's Mojo Minute, just like last week, this is the tip of the iceberg. Mojo Minute, just like last week, this is the tip of the iceberg. It's the Washington Way, it's the Tammany Hall two-step. All of this is finally being exposed, and its connection to Rome is being exposed too.
Speaker 2:Hopefully, president Trump and others will keep pushing for real accountability, including making the Catholic Church answer for the money. Where is it going? Who received it? What did they do with the money? And if you can't account for it, then you don't get any more money in the future, plain and simple. And yes, we should audit these people every few years, if not every year. Everyone who gets money from the federal government should have to open the books to those audits.
Speaker 2:If we want to save the republic and tackle our massive debt, we need to rein in government spending.
Speaker 2:It's time to cut up the government credit card and start working through those credit card statements. Like we said last week, it would be nice if we had a church leadership, especially at the USCCB, who would take ownership and make a statement such as we understand the American people want these monies to be spent prudently and justly and for the right reasons, and we welcome any audit and we will open our books to explain the good we have been doing and the charity that we are giving. But, folks, that is not what was said. They didn't take ownership of it. Instead, they pointed the finger to the modern Tower of Babel and began worshiping at the religion of government and its money Bible and began worshiping at the religion of government and its money. Until we get some real ownership and confessions, let's continue to pray for those in Washington and in Rome who are trying to do the right thing. Not sure there's that many of them, but certainly let us pray and, as always, let's keep fighting the good fight.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources.
Speaker 2:Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.