The church

I haven't written much about Catholic stuff lately. There was a time when almost every post was about something Catholic, but it has been years since then, and I guess I'm finally in a place where I don't miss Catholicism. Part of the reason for that is the constant reminder of its enduring dark side. Two recent examples in the news ...

1) 'Unthinkable loss': More than 200 bodies of children found at Indigenous school in Canada

What's not mentioned in most of the headlines is that this was a Catholic school ... Survivors, faith leaders call on Catholic Church to take responsibility for residential schools

[...] The Roman Catholic Church was responsible for operating up to 70 per cent of residential schools, according to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS). United, Anglican and Presbyterian churches were among those operating the remainder. In the years since, the Roman Catholic Church is the only one that hasn't made a formal apology ....

2) Meanwhile, the Catholic church in the US is all hopeful about its case that might be heard by the now super conservative Supreme Court. The case is Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. Basically, the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which is paid by the city to run a foster care agency, wants to use those taxpayer dollars to discriminate against married LGBTQ taxpayers who want to adopt ... With Fulton v. Philadelphia, U.S. Supreme Court is poised to decide a new LGBT rights issue

This case isn't unique. Under the Obama administration there was a case bought by the ACLU on behalf of sex trafficking victims. The government paid the church to run a social service to help sex trafficking victims, but the church would not give those women information about their contraception or abortion options ... Court Prohibits Religious Restrictions on Government-Funded Trafficking Victims' Program

This subject of a clash between the government, which is trying to protect its citizens from discrimination, and the Catholic Church, which wants to be able to discriminate while at the same time still using government money, has come up often in the areas of adoption, employment, health care, marriage, sex trafficking, and even hate crime legislation. The church *could* discriminate against people to its heart's content if only it would let go of the government's money, but the church really wants those government contracts and grants. This article in The New York Times states ...

Catholic Charities affiliates received a total of nearly $2.9 billion a year from the government in 2010, about 62 percent of its annual revenue of $4.67 billion. Only 3 percent came from churches in the diocese (the rest came from in-kind contributions, investments, program fees and community donations).

And this from an article at Mother Jones ...

Under Obama, Catholic religious charities alone have received more than $650 million, according to a spokeswoman from the US Department of Health and Human Services, where much of the funding comes from. The USCCB, which has been such a vocal critic of the Obama administration, has seen its share of federal grants from HHS jump from $71.8 million in the last three years of the Bush administration to $81.2 million during the first three years of Obama. In fiscal 2011 alone, the group received a record $31.4 million from the administration it believes is virulently anti-Catholic, according to HHS data.

All this changed under Trump, and now with the Supreme Court Justices he appointed, there may be a whole new era of discriminatory bonanza for the Catholic church.