It might surprise you to learn that, in recent weeks, the Mormon Church has become more liberal on LGBT rights than the Catholic Church. The Mormons supported an LGBT nondiscrimination bill in their home city of Salt Lake, which is now law. While the Mormons still do not support marriage equality, they now believe LGBT people should not be discriminated against in housing or employment. The same cannot be said about the Catholic Church, which has been fighting nondiscrimination legislation since the 1970s.
But now, they’ve added a new twist and a bluff, and are getting themselves deeper entrenched in supporting discrimination.
In Washington, D.C., where marriage-equality legislation is up for a vote in City Council, Catholic Charities — which receives millions of dollars in funding from the city to “assist the poor of Washington” with soup kitchens, recreation programs, shelters, etc. — has stated that if the legislation passes they might have to close and end services to the poor. Let’s not get into the hypocrisy of the church not serving the poor, charity and the name of the organization, but as the line goes, let’s follow the money.
I’m sure Catholic Charities does a lot of great work. But the government funding it receives also serves to pay Catholic Charities’ employees, which includes the priests running many of those services, and church officials themselves. Ever wonder where the church’s worker bees come from and how they are employed? Welcome to Catholic Charities. Along with other nonprofits, your tax dollars are supporting these organizations. That’s fine, until they begin to get involved in politics. Then, they’re receiving tax dollars for politics, not charity.
Additionally, Catholic Charities rents facility space from the Catholic churches. If they lose these contracts — and the income — a lot of churches and schools would be closed.
So, now that they have made the threat, let’s call their bluff: Closing Catholic Charities would hurt the church more than it would hurt the city.
While no one wants unemployment to go up, if Catholic Charities closed, it might be an opportunity for other nonprofits in the area to receive these grants and deliver these services without a political agenda.
Can we humbly suggest to the D.C. government that they take the threat seriously and set up an emergency committee to review the services that Catholic Charities delivers, the funding it receives and then send out a request to other D.C. nonprofits? Big Brothers Big Sisters, Police Athletic League and other churches are just a few that could replace Catholic Charities.
Can you imagine the Catholic Church sending out what literally might be thousands of pink slips? They cannot afford this loss. Pull the plug on their discrimination.
Mark Segal is PGN publisher. He can be reached at [email protected].