That headline is a joke of course!
As the Bishops gathered and gave “thanks for the gift and contributions of immigrants and refugees to our great nation,” not a peep was mentioned about the millions of tax payer dollars going to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops “Migration Fund” which allows them to demonstrate their humanity to man (well, to the foreign ones anyway).
Before you read the story, here again is a reminder of just one year of the income the Bishops received thanks to the generosity of US taxpayers.
I wrote this in July, here, summarizing the income that nine federal refugee contractors*** receive for their ‘charitable’ good works.
The Bishops Migration Fund was 97% taxpayer-funded according to a 2014 annual report for their Migration Fund and I doubt the percentage has changed much in recent years.
The Bishops don’t file a Form 990 and their operations are so vast, I could spend the whole day and still not sort it out. Also, maybe you can find one, but I have not found an annual report for their refugee program since I found this one for 2014.
So we will have to rely on it (again). Keep in mind these funds for their refugee resettlement program do not include millions that go directly from the feds to some individual Catholic Charities and Dioceses around the US. (If you are researching your local CC or Dioceses, you can often find good numbers at USASpending.gov)
Now here is the news from Crux:
U.S. bishops release Thanksgiving message advocating for migrants and refugees
NEW YORK – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a special Thanksgiving message, offering a particular plea for the protection of migrants and refugee families.
In a statement released on Monday, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston and president of the USCCB, expressed solidarity with DACA recipients, beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status, and other refugees attempting to escape persecution or danger in their home countries. [We pay them millions for their advocacy!—ed]
DiNardo cited last week’s fall assembly of U.S. bishops in Baltimore and said the conference was “attentive in a special way to those who are often excluded from this great abundance-the poor, the sick, the addicted, the unborn, the unemployed, and especially migrants and refugees.
“My brothers expressed a shared and ever-greater sense of alarm-and urgency to act-in the face of policies that seemed unthinkable only a short time ago,” said DiNardo.
[….]
DiNardo also used his Thanksgiving message to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, a long-time policy goal of the USCCB. [If the Senate Gang of Eight bill had been signed in to law, the refugee contractors would have gotten an expanded role and more taxpayer money to sign the newly amnestied up for their government services, just as they do now for refugees—ed]
“This year, I give thanks for the gift and contributions of immigrants and refugees to our great nation. I also pray that next year, families now under threat will not be broken and dispersed, but instead will be united in joy around their tables, giving thanks for all the blessings our nation has to offer,” he concluded.
(Including the blessings of an over-flowing federal treasury that sends us millions annually!)
I’m going to continue talking about this until the Bishops tell Americans the truth about their income! Why is that so hard?
***These are the nine federal refugee contractors paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities.
- Church World Service (CWS)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
- World Relief Corporation (WR)