That Associated Press headline the other day certainly was a grabber: “Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B.” Let’s start with three statements about this in-depth report:
(1) The headline and the lede both assume there is such a thing as the “U.S. Roman Catholic Church” and that someone can write a check that will be cashed by that institution. This is like saying that there is an “American Public School System,” as opposed to complex networks of schools at the local, regional and state levels.
(2) There are national Catholic organizations that speak — and even lobby — for Catholic groups and causes, such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. This doesn’t wipe out the reality of local parishes, ministries, schools, religious orders, regional dioceses, etc.
(3) It was completely valid to do an in-depth report on how Catholic nonprofit groups campaigned to receive coronavirus relief money for their employees — for precisely the same reasons journalists can, and should, investigate similar activities by other huge nonprofits and companies with complex national, regional and local structures. Maybe start with Planned Parenthood, just to provide some balance?
The key, once again, is a concept that came up the other day at the U.S. Supreme Court — “equal access.” Under these legal principles, part of the legacy of a liberal-conservative coalition in the Clinton-Gore years, government entities are supposed to treat religious organizations (think nonprofits) the same way they treat similar secular groups. They can work with all of them (sacred and secular alike) or they can turn all of them down.
They key is that they are treated the same. The bottom line: Religion is not a uniquely dangerous force in American life. This topic is discussed — sort of — way down in the AP feature.
But here is the overture of this follow-the-money investigative piece:
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.
The church’s haul may have reached — or even exceeded — $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found.
Note that nice neutral noun there in the second paragraph — “haul.”
Also note that in the second paragraph the unified financial structure of Catholicism has grown to global level.
In other words, let’s say that an unemployed Catholic kindergarten teacher in Brooklyn works for her local parish school and it has been crippled by coronavirus financial realities. Using the logic at the top of this AP report, this teacher actually works for the pope. Or, in the lede, she works for a mythical super-cardinal who leads a united “U.S. Roman Catholic Church” — the structure that landed this financial “haul.”
Where to start? All over America, there are finance committee chairpersons in local Catholic parishes, schools, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, etc., who are shaking their head over that one.
So let’s repeat: Yes, there are national lobbying efforts on behalf of Catholic causes and institutions. Yes, they sought coronavirus aid for Catholic groups across the nation — as did waves of other religious groups and secular nonprofits alike.
Oh, and — yes — regional Catholic bodies have been hit hard by settlements caused by clergy sexual abuse. The question is whether that reality should have prevented local parishes, schools, missions, etc., from being part of this paycheck replacement project. Readers can judge for themselves whether clergy sexual abuse material deserved approximately a third of the content in this long report. If so, let’s see AP apply the same formula to coverage of secular institutions that have faced similar sexual-abuse challenges.
Isn’t it up to journalists to tell the public who got significant federal money and readers can decide for themselves what they think? How is religion different from media, sports –other industries stories were done on? https://t.co/L99wvbrLN8 or https://t.co/Pz5obG1rVK
— Michelle Boorstein (@mboorstein) July 10, 2020
Meanwhile, here is a lively section of this piece that sets the tone in this whole piece:
By aggressively promoting the payroll program and marshaling resources to help affiliates navigate its shifting rules, Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools and other ministries have so far received approval for at least 3,500 forgivable loans, AP found.
The Archdiocese of New York, for example, received 15 loans worth at least $28 million just for its top executive offices. Its iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was approved for at least $1 million.
In Orange County, California, where a sparkling glass cathedral estimated to cost over $70 million recently opened, diocesan officials working at the complex received four loans worth at least $3 million.
And elsewhere, a loan of at least $2 million went to the diocese covering Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, where a church investigation revealed last year that then-Bishop Michael Bransfield embezzled funds and made sexual advances toward young priests.
Simply being eligible for low-interest loans was a new opportunity. But the church couldn’t have been approved for so many loans — which the government will forgive if they are used for wages, rent and utilities — without a second break.
That crucial “second break” concept is directly linked to AP’s understanding of Catholic church structure.
Read this carefully:
Religious groups persuaded the Trump administration to free them from a rule that typically disqualifies an applicant with more than 500 workers. Without this preferential treatment, many Catholic dioceses would have been ineligible because — between their head offices, parishes and other affiliates — their employees exceed the 500-person cap.
In this case we appear to be dealing with large regional structures, as opposed to the mythical U.S. super-church. In this case, individual parishes and schools are ineligible because they have legal ties to a local diocese.
Here’s my question: Many, many other churches and religious bodies in other denominations and faiths also took part in this program. The national Episcopal Church, for example, shares this basic diocesan structure. Were individual congregations, schools and causes in the Episcopal Church (and other groups) treated differently than their Catholic counterparts?
That’s a crucial question that this report needed to address. The implication is that the mythical Catholic American super-church got a special deal, in part (wait for it) because Catholic voters are so crucial to the 2020 ballot-box survival of You. Know. Who. in the White House.
Here is what made it into the report. This is long, but essential:
Even without a full accounting, AP’s analysis places the Catholic Church among the major beneficiaries in the Paycheck Protection Program, which also has helped companies backed by celebrities, billionaires, state governors and members of Congress.
The program was open to all religious groups, and many took advantage. Evangelical advisers to President Donald Trump, including his White House spiritual czar, Paula White-Cain, also received loans.
There is no doubt that state shelter-in-place orders disrupted houses of worship and businesses alike. Masses were canceled, even during the Holy Week and Easter holidays, depriving parishes of expected revenue and contributing to layoffs in some dioceses. Some families of Catholic school students are struggling to make tuition payments. And the expense of disinfecting classrooms once classes resume will put additional pressure on budgets.
But other problems were self-inflicted. Long before the pandemic, scores of dioceses faced increasing financial pressure because of a dramatic rise in recent clergy sex abuse claims.
The scandals that erupted in 2018 reverberated throughout the world.
Actual, the sexual-abuse scandals began in the 1980s and there was another huge surge of coverage in 2002 (The Boston Globe expose and more). But, you know, nevermind.
The logic is that the sins of many diocesan leaders — which GetReligion has argued deserved all the coverage they received and more — should have prevented employees in thousands of local parishes, schools, homeless shelters, etc., from receiving PPP aid to replace missing paychecks — to the same degree as employees in other nonprofits.
So is there potential for scandal here?
Of course there is. Again, of course there is.
Did AP reporters find evidence that the coronavirus relief money is STAYING at the diocese level and not making it to the local employees? Is there evidence that the money is being used to replace — in diocesan budgets — money lost in sexual-abuse scandal payments?
That would be a huge story and a genuine scandal. Similar forms of financial sin could, of course, be taking place in other secular and sacred nonprofits. Here’s hoping that unemployed Catholics at the local level have a chance to see AP reports on that.
It pains me to say it, as a former AP reporter, but this story is unfair. You don’t get the other side until the 24th graph. Never would have passed muster when I was at the AP. I don’t mind the topic, but the story implies money was used for nefarious purposes, not to save jobs.
— Paul Moses (@PaulBMoses) July 13, 2020
Let’s wrap this up. As I said earlier, the “equal access” angle is mentioned way down in the story — sort of. There is no discussion of how these same legal principles have affected many other stories in American life in recent decades (including a SCOTUS decision about scholarship programs just the other day).
Were AP editors aware that Catholic officials were not, well, making up these “equal access” concepts on their own, as a way to justify their actions?
A spokesperson for the bishops’ conference acknowledged its officials lobbied for the paycheck program, but said the organization wasn’t tracking what dioceses and Catholic agencies received.
“These loans are an essential lifeline to help faith-based organizations to stay afloat and continue serving those in need during this crisis,” spokesperson Chieko Noguchi said in a written statement. According to AP’s data analysis, the church and all its organizations reported retaining at least 407,900 jobs with the money they were awarded.
Noguchi also wrote the conference felt strongly that “the administration write and implement this emergency relief fairly for all applicants.”
Also, there was this:
In program materials, SBA officials said they provided the affiliation waiver to religious groups in deference to their unique organizational structure, and because the public health response to slow the coronavirus’ spread disrupted churches just as it did businesses.
A senior official in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which worked with the SBA to administer the program, acknowledged in a statement the wider availability of loans to religious organizations. “The CARES Act expanded eligibility to include nonprofits in the PPP, and SBA’s regulations ensured that no eligible religious nonprofit was excluded from participation due to its beliefs or denomination,” the statement said.
At the end of the report, there is a section that clearly states the logic that appears to have driven this AP investigation, as well as the church’s response.
Frankly, I wish that this material had been used high in the story — just in the name of candor.
The U.S. church may have a troubling record on sex abuse, but Bishop Lawrence Persico of Erie, Pennsylvania, pushed back on the idea that dioceses should be excluded from the government’s rescue package. Approximately 80 organizations within his diocese received loans worth $10.3 million, the diocese said, with most of the money going to parishes and schools.
Persico pointed out that church entities help feed, clothe and shelter the poor — and in doing so keep people employed.
“I know some people may react with surprise that government funding helped support faith-based schools, parishes and dioceses,” he said. “The separation of church and state does not mean that those motivated by their faith have no place in the public square.”
Then there’s that whole “equal access” thing about offering the same kind of treatment to secular and sacred nonprofits. Details, details, details.
ybvdadminuser
