New AP report details ongoing abuse of PPP funds by Catholic Church

[msfiddlestix]

Good read from Freedom From Religion Foundation.. this grifting from the Church just cannot be allowed to continue

Freedom From Religion Foundation



Long Article packed with important info.




New AP report details ongoing abuse of PPP funds by Catholic Church


February 4, 2021

Another new bombshell report by the Associated Press shows once again that churches are stealing from the American taxpayer:

“As the pandemic began to unfold, AP reveals today, “scores of Catholic dioceses across the U.S. received aid through the Paycheck Protection Program while sitting on well over $10 billion in cash, short-term investments or other available funds, an Associated Press investigation has found. And despite the broad economic downturn, these assets have grown in many dioceses.”

AP reports that “[t]he 112 dioceses that shared their financial statements collected at least $1.5 billion in taxpayer-backed aid. A majority of these dioceses reported enough money on hand to cover at least six months of operating expenses, even without any new income.”

The PPP is not even a year old and already the grift and abuse by church has been enormous. And unfortunately we’ll see more: The Paycheck Protection Program was reopened on January 11, 2021.

Remember all the state/church problems with PPP that FFRF has fought and brought to light in the past year?

First, the Small Business Administration violated the Constitution and trampled longstanding agency rules to extend these loans to churches. This was clearly unconstitutional, as FFRF explained to the SBA at the time.

LINK


And this is only the tip of the corruption as the latest AP report shows.

[Irish_Dem]

1. The money needs to be clawed back. With interest.

[msfiddlestix]

2. Yes, and I believe needs to be scrutinized in this current Relief bill.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Joe was really good about reviewing who was getting the money from

the Financial relief bill that he and Obama worked on.

[JI7]

3. This is why just giving the stimulus payments to everyone shouldn't be a big deal

A lot if people got money through those loans which were forgiven that shouldn't have.

It would have been better to just give everyone monthly payments.

[msfiddlestix]

5. Mega Churches taken as much as $3,5 Billion.

This doesn't seem right to me:

Finally, there’s the well-documented but still emerging abuse, including by FFRF Director of Strategic Response Andrew Seidel, who wrote, “American churches took in as much as $10 billion in taxpayer funds through PPP loans. More than 400 evangelical churches received loans of at least $1 million. The Catholic Church might have taken in as much as $3.5 billion.” He explained that Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church took in nearly $5 million in taxpayer funds. Other mega-churches purchased private jets, returning the taxpayer money when they were caught.