Group items tagged

The American fraternal society, the Knights of Columbus,

The modern day Knights of Malta

Opus Dei prelate

Neocatechumenate, Focolare, Legion of Mary for example – as well as the Knights of Columbus, the Legion of Christ’s lay group, Regnum Christi, and Opus Dei, turning out large crowds in St. Peter’s Square“to cheer the pope and his policies, and they have these people all over the world.”

According to a November 2011 study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Catholics had 41 lobbying groups in Washington D.C. “

Mercy Health, with revenue of nearly $4 billion, “could qualify as one of the largest corporations in the St. Louis region.” But due its 501(c) (3) status “pays few corporate, income, property, capital gains or sales taxes…and is exempt for federal requirements to disclose certain financial data about its operations….Mercy Health oversees a network of more than 55 tax-exempt organizations, including fundraising foundations, physician groups and hospitals in Missouri and three other states.

The financial statements list “Social Development and World Peace” as an expense category which received only 8 percent of chancery (archdiocesan headquarters) spending from 1997 through 2009. Catholic Charities (CC), the only archdiocesan agency completely dedicated to helping the unfortunate, states year after year in its annual report that it receives only 3 to 4 percent of its income from the “archdiocese, parishes and other church” while 35 percent came from the government. Most people think that the Roman Catholic Church receives the bulk of its income from a percentage of parish collections forwarded to the (arch)bishop. From 1997 through 2009, only $54 million (21 percent) of $251 million in chancery income came from the parishes. For the archdiocesan entities combined, $312 million (34 percent) came from gifts. (The rest came from investment income, program fees, tuition, cemetary sales, etc.) The archbishop gave away $34 million in gifts. Some dioceses are not as wealthy as Denver; some more so. With 200 dioceses in the U.S., their numerous foundations and the USCCB also receiving millions in donations and government grants, that’s a staggering amount of money coming and going with no transparency or accountability.

A good example of how Roman Catholic money flows around the world is when the Los Angeles archdiocese had to pay a $660 million settlement to its victims of sex abuse, the Allied Irish Banks (AIB) provided a loan of $240 million in 2009.  AIB loans of up to $500 million were extended to four American dioceses in 2005-07 which had claimed bankruptcy. According to the Irish Daily Mail in 2011, the loans are being serviced and repaid “…from an unknown source.”

As noted in His Holiness, the Church fears exposure more than monetary loss

have fought so hard to prevent laws which extend the statutes of limitations on sexual abuse

The Church wants to prevent more lawsuits and, therefore, further exposure of their internal documents. And that’s also why there will probably never be another diocesan bankruptcy due to sex abuse lawsuits – because the debtors must provide the court with a list of their assets.