The Pope’s New Clothes

[pinto]

16. The funding issue has come up before. Yeah, they receive $2.9 b from the federal govt.

62% of their revenue. Yet they state that 98% of that federal funding goes to direct services, either provided by catholic charities directly or through subcontracts with other community based non-profits.

I'm taking it at face value given that the feds have an oversight process to track usage of federal grants. How thorough that is may be debatable.



Some info -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Charities_USA

Charity Navigator - Catholic Charities USA

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=10656#.U7HS741OXIU

Safeguards on faith-based organizations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Office_of_Faith-Based_and_Neighborhood_Partnerships

<snip>

Faith-based organizations are eligible to participate in federally administered social service programs to the same degree as any other group, although certain restrictions on FBOs that accept government funding have been created by the White House to protect separation of church and state.

They may not use direct government funds to support inherently religious activities such as prayer, worship, religious instruction, or proselytization.

Any inherently religious activities that the organizations may offer must be offered separately in time or location from services that receive federal assistance.

FBOs cannot discriminate on the basis of religion when providing services (GAO 2006:13[3]).