Monday, April 23, 2018

Church and State


Catholics close 20 refugee offices, layoff hundreds as federal funding plummets, by Ann Corcoran 4/22/18

“There is not a Catholic Charities program that has not been impacted in some way…picture is not a pretty one.”
Jim Kuh, Director of immigration and refugee services for Catholic Charities USA

Here we go again, another whinny story about how that mean ol’ Donald Trump is hurting Catholic RELIGIOUS programs by cutting the number of refugees who come with federal funding attached to each one!

Before reading on check out the Capital Research Center tutorial on why it is bad policy all around for taxpayers to fund Catholic Charities.

This is what I think every time I see stories like this:
If the Catholic Church and its members want to help the poor throughout the world, they should use their own private charity!  And, better still, be brave and go to where the people are suffering and help them there. It is not the role of the US government to fund the church’s good works!
(Editor: as I said yesterday, in order to read the rest of this post, click on the link below!) Here is a bit of the story from Crux:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – War, famine and gang violence have created the largest global refugee population since World War II, yet the U.S. has drastically cut the numbers of refugees it will accept, causing the reduction and closure of Catholic resettlement programs nationwide. [You need to know that escaping gang violence does not make one a legitimate REFUGEE—ed]

Nearly 20 U.S. Catholic refugee resettlement programs have closed in the past two years and dozens of others have scaled back their efforts because there are fewer refugees being admitted into the country, said Richard Hogan, director of resettlement services for Migration and Refugee Services, an arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Fewer refugees arriving! How about raising private money to better care for the ones you admitted in previous years many of whom are still living desperate lives!

Crux continues….The number of refugees authorized for admission to the U.S. in fiscal year 2018, which began Oct. 1, 2017, was cut to 45,000, but the State Department has admitted only 10,548 in the first six months.

Catholic Charities agencies traditionally resettle roughly 25 percent of all refugees admitted into the U.S. each year and the decreases in numbers have been felt, said Jim Kuh, senior director of immigration and refugee services for Catholic Charities USA. [There are nine federal refugee contractors***, and the Catholics place 25% of them, wow! they must be hurting financially—ed].

“There is not a Catholic Charities program that has not been impacted in some way,” Kuh told Catholic News Service, adding that the “picture is not a pretty one.”

Catholic organizations charged with resettling refugees have laid off or transferred as many as 300 employees as a direct result of the reduced numbers, Hogan said, adding that his department hasn’t received updated data since November, meaning that figure may be higher.

It is all Trump’s fault! What? The Catholic Church can’t work for “human dignity” without an infusion from taxpayers?

Trump administration policies involving refugees is a rejection “of a hierarchy of issues of concern to the Church,” Kerwin said. “These issues involve life, they involve human dignity, they involve flourishing. People are being killed by gangs, they’re being persecuted.”

What? Catholics can’t help refugees to sign up for ‘their services’ without being paid for their charitable good works?
In addition to providing economic relief to refugees, Catholic Charities programs assist them with navigating health and school systems, receiving temporary cash assistance, tutoring for the youth, English as a second language for adults, orientations to help with cultural adjustment and even clinical counseling, said Shalaina Harlan-Yuya, director of refugee services for Catholic Charities Fort Worth.

“Because these individuals have been persecuted or fear persecution due to their race, nationality, religion, social group membership or political affiliation, they deserve our welcoming spirit, hospitality, and support,” she said.
Yes, maybe, but not with federal money!  I truly doubt that Jesus would approve of this arrangement!

Read the whole whine-fest Crux article here. The article goes on to mention that the refugees that CC places will do work Americans won’t do.  And, they say that some offices are trying to stay afloat until “when arrivals return to prior levels.”

I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).

It gets a little tricky trying to figure out how much of your money actually goes to the Catholic Church because the Bishops get nearly $100 million and then individual Catholic Charities get millions more. 

I recommend that you search USA Spending and research grants and contracts for your local Catholic diocese to see the infusion from the feds into your community.

The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services (welfare)!  From most recent accounting, here.


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

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