The Love of Money

TRANSCRIPT

Boy, the bishops are not going to like this being reported. Remember when the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was passed by Congress and signed by President Trump? That was the giant $2 trillion bucket that companies could apply for to weather the Wuhan pandemic without laying people off. Fair enough.

But the presumption was you either didn't have a lot of money — cash on hand — or a reasonable way to keep income flowing in. The PPP money was doled out on a first-come, first-served basis until essentially it ran out. Congress did end up refunding it, but during the interim, many small businesses went belly-up waiting for the money and unable to pay bills.

Of course, their (former) employees lost their jobs, usually the most vulnerable. Earlier this week, the Small Business Administration (SBA), which oversaw the distribution of funds, published the list of the hundreds of thousands of businesses — including Catholic dioceses — that applied for and got the loans. It also disclosed the amounts received.

In an attempt to fend off expected (not to mention well-deserved) negative press, the U.S. bishops' conference sent out a note to the bishops all over the country, warning them that their numbers were about to be published by the SBA for the whole world to see. By chance, because it's always accidental you know, Church Militant came across that warning communiqué from "Crooked Bishop Headquarters." Here is the relevant part:

The U.S. Small Business Administration is set to post the loan information for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) on their website this morning. As previously announced by the SBA, they will disclose the business name, address, NAICS code, demographic info (if relevant), lender name, date of approval, congressional district and loan range for each loan above $150,000. ... You may receive press inquiries.

Yes, you sure will be called. Now, a set of questions arises here, a central one being why a large number of archdioceses around the country would be applying for limited government loans when small businesses — many minority-owned — had to go out of business because they got crowded out of line.

Almost every archdiocese in America is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars in endowments, most of which could be liquidated pretty quickly. They took advantage of a program meant to help "the little guy" and bulldozed over him.

The following list is by no means exhaustive, but it makes the point. Please note, we've averaged some of the amounts because of how the data was given. According to the SBA:

• The New York archdiocese, under Cdl. Timothy Dolan, received a grand total of roughly $10 million under three different filings
• The Los Angeles archdiocese, under Abp. José "social justice" Gomez, took over $1 million away from small, dying shops and storefronts
• Denver and Abp. Samuel Aquila, by applying under four different subsidiaries, beat back small businesses on the way to a haul of roughly $4 million
• Our personal favorite, the archdiocese of Detroit, took the money and laid people off anyway (with great sadness, of course), cashing in for more than $2 million (and closer to $3 million) in a city ravaged by poverty, with numerous small businesses struggling and losing
• Washington, D.C.'s archbishop, Wilton "Black Lives Matter" Gregory, didn't seem to care about the black lives who owned businesses, whom he beat to the bank to the tune of nearly $4 million

And the beat goes on:

• Atlanta: $2 million
• San Francisco: $7 million
• Hartford: $3 million
• Miami: $2 million
• Dubuque: $1 million
• Chicago: $1 million
• Indianapolis: $3 million
• Kansas City: $1 million
• New Orleans: $3 million
• Boston: nearly $4 million
• St. Paul-Minneapolis: $1 million
• Omaha: $1 million
• Newark (under pro-gay Tobin): $3 million
• Portland: $1 million
• Philadelphia: $3 million
• Galveston-Houston (under Cdl. DiNardo): $3 million
• Milwaukee: $3 million
• San Antonio: nearly $3 million
• And even though it's not an archdiocese, Dallas cashed in as well (like dozens and dozens of other non-archdioceses), pocketing close to $2 million 

These guys sure don't expend any effort to save souls, but when it comes to getting into line to grab free money away from floundering businesses who need it, well, don't get in their way, let's just say that. Again, it's not that they applied for a loan because income was down, it's that they took it away from small business owners who don't have the financial resources and gargantuan endowments they do. And they didn't care, and still don't.

This is exactly what large companies and major universities did in the early days of the financial free-for-all, but they got embarrassed into giving it back after negative media attention. Likewise, Planned Parenthood took tens of millions of dollars through various arms and organs, which they illegally sell for profit (and the arms and organs we're talking about once belonged to little babies).

You kind of expect that giant, greedy corporations and child-killers would behave this way. But the U.S. bishops? That very-short list amounts to almost $65 million in money heading to various dioceses and their multi-layered bureaucracies, and that is nowhere near the large bottom-line number.

More than the percentage of homosexual clergy, more than the total money paid out, more than the drop-out rate by converts within the first three years of converting; the numbers the bishops guard — with a zeal they should have for souls and the Church — are the ones with dollar signs in front of them.

The disastrous meltdown of the Church in the United States has occurred partly because the evil has been funded by enormous sums of wealth that the bishops lie to you about by pretending they don't have any money. Every U.S. bishop should have to publish his financials clearly on the front page of his website and explain every last penny.

It's not their money. It's yours. They just lie to you about it. And if you happen to find yourself in the unfortunate position of being between a bishop and a pile of cash, make sure you're well-protected.