Out of the Ashes...

And a few words on the USCCB

Out of the ashes of mom life, my Substack rises again!

I never make promises of consistency anymore…although I absolutely love chatting faith and politics with you, my family comes first, and that leaves content deserts everywhere in According to Bridget land. If you’ve been wondering about, parched for more of my absolutely CRUCIAL thoughts on the world, here is your sip of water ;)

Aside from prioritizing my family, I’ve also taken to “praying before I post,” which means more than a few things never see the publish button. Turns out that a lot of times God shushes me (gently of course) and reminds me that I will be held to account for every word I speak or write. I am ONE HUNDRED PERCENT a “blurt out whatever comes to mind” kind of person, so pray for me as I die a slow death to self over here ;)

One of my favorite podcasters, Fr. Robert McTeigue, always uses the phrase “with clarity and charity.” I’m going to do my best to give this topic both of those things, despite believing Church leadership is failing us in many ways…including what I’m about to share.

When I mentioned on IG that the USCCB receives government money…

so many folks were shocked, that I thought this was worth digging into a little bit.

The USCCB actually receives money from multiple streams of income. All of the social media financial gurus would be proud.

1) National appeals at parishes. If you’re Catholic, you’ve surely had this experience.

2) They receive operating income from things such as a percentage from diocese earnings, and royalties from books (ie: The New American Bible.)

3) Finally, our focus for today, they receive money from the government through grants.

How much money??

In 2023, the USCCB received a whopping $129,626,673 in government grants. These grants primarily come from the US Dept of Health and Human Services as well as the US Department of State, typically for migrant related charities.

If you’d like to see their full financial statement, here is the link.

Now, I know you’re smart, so this will not shock you. Government money comes with strings. But is it just the USCCB??

Now it’s time for you to do a little investigating with me. Head to USAspending.gov. (Do NOT go down the rabbit hole or you’ll end up crying in a corner about all of the inane things they do with our tax dollars.) Type in “Diocese” and scroll down. Add up all of the government money being sent directly to specific diocese.

Understand, of course, that that money ALSO comes with strings.

Finally, the Catholic Church (as all religious institutions are in the US if they want to be) are a 501C3 organization: in other words, they are tax exempt. In order to retain that designation, certain requirements must be met. One of those requirements? “The organization cannot intervene in political campaigns.”

Phew. Ok. Add all of that up, and what do you get?

You get a Church beholden to the government, instead of the other way around.

You get a Cardinal Cupich praying at the DNC, conveniently leaving out the unborn, after releasing a statement a few weeks earlier about the dangers of gun violence.

You get a USCCB “news” page, full of stories about Pope Francis claiming blocking migrants is a “grave” sin.

You get bishops like John Stowe in KY flagrantly deviating from Church teaching with no (earthly) repercussions.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a TON of good news in the Church. Christ will not allow the Church he founded to be lost. I write this not to discourage you, but simply to provide some, hopefully helpful, perspective on why your parish priest might not be as bold as one would hope.

Why don’t we hold the Church to the same standards as our politicians?

Here we are, losing our minds over one presidential candidate being in support of federal funding of IVF (rightfully so, it’s a terrible idea for many reasons,) and yet, when is the last time any of us have called on our bishops to say, forget the dang money and TEACH YOUR PEOPLE??

Granted, this is old (the most recent I could find) but in 2013, a Pew Research Poll found that just 13% of Catholics believed that IVF was morally wrong.

The Church is unequivocal in its teaching that IVF is morally unacceptable. (If you’re not familiar with why the Church teaches this, this is a good place to start!) So why don’t we know? Church leadership doesn’t talk about it. Why? Well, I’d argue that at least part of the reason…as it almost always is…the money.

So where do we go from here?

Please don’t read this as a free pass to our politicians. But I simply cannot fault them for not understanding these issues, when the moral half of the Church & State equation isn’t doing their job. Things we can do?

(All with “clarity and charity” of course!) Share TRUE information about life issues. Reach out to your parish, ask them to talk about these things. Reach out to your representatives on a local level to inform them on these issues. The president is important of course, but we forget how important state legislatures and Congress are. Pray for our country. Write to the USCCB. Ask them to have the courage to speak boldly. Teach your children, if you have them, what the Church teaches. The marriage of faith and reason in the Catholic Church is so rich, and so often ignored. Maybe you only have time to do one of these things. That’s an amazing step in the right direction!

Reviving the Church in America will not be easy. The good news is, we weren’t made for easy. In fact, I hear from reliable sources that suffering is the path to Heaven. Glad to be on the journey, and in the battle, with you!

“Suffering is a great grace; through suffering the soul becomes like the Savior;” - St. Faustina