Youngstown Catholic Diocese received $2 million in fed Covid aid
An Associated Press investigation has found a large number of Catholic dioceses across the U.S. received aid through the Paycheck Protection Program,
all while the church itself sits on well over $10 billion in cash, short-term investments or other available funds.
The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown received "a little over $ 2million dollars" from that program, according to diocese officials. That's part of the overall $1.5 billion in taxpayer-backed aid given to the Catholic church in America.
When the coronavirus first hit, churches were forced to close their doors and give up Sunday collection.
According to the AP, some dioceses reported an income drop of 40% or more at that time and their schools took hits when fundraisers were canceled and families had trouble paying tuition.
Since they didn't know where their income would then come from, the Roman Catholic Diocese turned to the Paycheck Protection Program. The low-interest bank loans would be forgiven by the federal government as long as recipients used the money to cover wages and operating expenses.
The Diocese of Youngstown has 2500 paid employees, many of whom work at its schools. They say they used the $2 million in PPP to pay them. Diocese chief financial officer, Patrick Kelly, says many parishes locally survive on the collection plates to stay open and do not have cash reserve on hand.
"I can ssure you that parishes throughout the Diocese operate on minimal amounts of reserves. A lot of them take the Sunday offeratory to take care of the expenses of the next week or so in many cases," said Kelly.
Kelly says the Vatican does have a lot of money but none of it is used to fund any parishes in America. They all need to be self sufficient.
"Any capital projects they have to have special fundraisers or solicit donors to do anything above the normal operating expenses," added Patrick.
National church officials tell the AP that the pandemic's full toll won't probably be seen until a year or two from now because some key sources of revenue are calculated based on income that parishes and schools generate.
