Your tax dollars
This is a topic I’ve discussed before, but it bears repeating (again and again!).
US taxpayers are paying for the lobbying work of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. And, I’m betting the average Catholic parishoner has no clue, nor would many approve of the Church taking government money to lobby for amnesty, or taking government money for anything!
This is from the Catholic News Service yesterday:
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Although the U.S. Senate failed to pass legislation that would have helped children of undocumented immigrants work toward legal status and get a college education, an official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed confidence Sept. 24 that the idea “is gaining more support on the merits.”
“These issues take some time to pass, even if the American public is ahead of their elected officials,” said Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy and public affairs for the USCCB Office of Migration and Refugee Services. He was commenting on the Senate’s 56-43 vote Sept. 21 against a defense authorization bill that included the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act as an amendment.
[…..]
The DREAM Act, introduced in Congress in various forms since 2003, has been supported by Catholic leaders and those in Catholic higher education.
2009 USCCB annual report tells the story
Now check out the USCCB Office of Migration and Refugee Services annual report here. Note that in an overall annual income stream of $62 million, $58 million comes from the taxpayer! Only $1.3 million comes from collections taken up during mass.
And, do you see that $2.2 million for the collection of travel loans? That is mostly your money too. Refugee airfare loans come from other taxpayer funds, but the USCCB is the collection agent for the refugees they resettle and the State Department lets them keep a cut of what they extract from refugees. It’s their collection fee just as if they were a commercial collection agency.
Oh, and one more thing, there are millions more of your tax dollars that go directly to Catholic Charities in your cities for refugee resettlement and other services.
So whatever happened to private charity? And, why does the ACLU turn a blind eye to this issue involving the separation of Church and state? Could it be because the Catholic Bishops promote the same far Left political goals as the ACLU?