As suffering small businesses around the country clamor for much-needed loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, news of prominent national chains receiving millions of dollars sparked an outcry among owners of smaller businesses who have been shut out. Now, many will likely be surprised to learn that between 12,000 and 13,000 of the 17,000 Catholic churches in the U.S. also applied for those coveted PPP loans.
Pat Markey, the executive director of the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference, an association of finance officers from Catholic dioceses, estimates that around 6,000 Catholic parishes had their applications for federal funding approved in the first round of PPP and around 3,000 have received loans so far in the second round.
While most people likely don’t think of Catholic churches as small businesses, Markey says houses of worship and their affiliated schools are trying to keep employees on their payrolls as well.
“The PPP isn’t about the federal government assisting houses of worship or churches,” he tells CBS News. “PPP is about keeping people on payrolls and a large segment of our society is the not for profit world. And a large segment of that society are churches and houses of worship. And they have people on payrolls too. So, if what this is about is keeping people on payrolls, then we all should have availability to do that….”
The above comes from a May 8 story on CBS News.
Is the author or headline writer suggesting the Church rely on volunteers rather than usually underpaid employees?
if Congress wanted to bar Churches from these programs, I’m sure they could have written legislation specifying that.
Mike – Catholic dioceses cannot accept Federal bailout money and then expect the government to still uphold the Church’s tax-exempt status. This is unprecedented and we’re setting ourselves up for a lot of government interference.
This will in fact put in place the groundwork (or siegeworks, in other images) for the removal of the tax exempt status. What internal memo from usccb went out to all dioceses to promote this? Whistleblowers will eventually surface from former chancery jobs once the layoffs set in a few months down the line.
David , Amen ! also with the pension liabilities deficit , this will hit the church hard ,whistle blowers I am sure are gathering evidence, i.e. Buffalo Archdiocese. Look to what the LA City Council is proposing on it’s commandeering of hotels for the homeless , they are asserting that the hotels have been given tax breaks and other considerations so they using that as leverage to get their way.
The USCCB, MSM, Democrats — all speak with one voice. We are losing our Church.
Peggy: stop drinking the Fox kook-aid!
This is for the common good. It puts money into the hands of employees/consumers, while retaining their employment status and human dignity, and lays a foundation that will assist the economy as it moves into full employment away from this crisis.
one, wholly, democratic & apostolic church ??
Perhaps a comment from a tax attorney with expertise in this area of LAW?
Maybe church employees could be better paid if Catholics weren’t so damned cheap when it comes to financial support of their parish.
Jimmy Mac, maybe they could be better paid if the hierarchy would clean house of the molesters , and stop spending money on useless trips, conferences and ministries . When we see mismanagement and abuse we don’t support it , also maybe if Catholics had not been driven out of the church by various liturgical abuses there would be more Catholics to contribute. The waste and mismanagement is on the leadership, not the laity , it has been documented on this site as well as others . Given the scandals and settlements with more to come , we are being prudent with our treasure, the hierarchy has not just lost trust and moral authority, it has activity destroyed it.
The last thing we want is the government in the church’s business. Here is a clip from Dave Ramsey talking exactly about this topic:
https://youtu.be/6NhKH91nvJg
This is just prolonging the inevitable. What happens after the money runs out and collections are still half what they normally are?
David ,”What happens after the money runs out and collections are still half what they normally are?”, a smaller more faithful church , as Pope Benedict predicted. .
This has nothing to do with Church or mismanagement. This is about millions of people who are out of work through no fault of their own or their organization/company. People who work for the church at the chancery and at the parish are in the end, employees. This “loan” is to help pay salaries and keep people employed. If that is what it is used for, the loan is forgiven, just like any other employer who got the loans.