Catholic hospitals comprise 14.5% of all hospitals in the US, hardly a monopoly. I’m with you that health care should be a right, and again, I don’t agree with the technical Catholic view of contraception, but their hospitals provide a hell of a lot of health care services to a hell of a lot of people, a good portion of whom do not have health insurance. It’s valid to advocate that they provide contraceptive services as well, but it’s counterproductive to dismiss their operations whole hog.
A city … in Florida? Haha, jokes on them; I hope they’ll enjoy wading around in knee deep brackish water in about 50 years hence.
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The Catholic Church has a serious cash flow problem because so many Catholics are from poor 3rd world countries and can’t contribute to the church coffers. In fact, they tend to be a source of negative cash flow.
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As someone who has literally received my food supplies from a church food bank for a time in my life, as well as furniture for my home via the Saint Vincent de Paul society, I can say without question that the church is definitely involved with charitable giving to the underprivileged.
There’s no doubt that they are selective in who they help, and what they support, and deserve criticism for those choices. But then, what person or organization isn’t selective in what causes they support?
I’m all for any initiative that helps the underprivileged. Of course, I wish they would do more, but it’s also important to not fall prey to the fallacy of the perfect solution, as well. Progress comes one step at a time.
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“Assets” - which includes a lot of land and buildings. Is that a world wide number, as given this size that seems low.
Of course unlike most $140 Billion dollar companies, they do actually help people with the money. Catholic Charities is one of the biggest charities in the US.
Not that there isn’t things to criticize the church for, but they aren’t just sitting on the wealth.
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he’s not wrong, but i can’t think of a single issue he speaks on that someone less rapey hasn’t also endorsed
Sup food bank buddy.
I don’t disagree they do good, but personally I’d rather see us have a government that provides these services (maybe move over some money from the “droning brown people” budget). You may think this is socialist but actually I’m being Extremely Economics: economy of scale means if the federal government is buying me my cheese, they can get a better price than any private company.
As boomers die, their kids don’t donate for some reason.
For me personally, I was angry for a long time at how I was treated in catholic school. Now I realize I was a very entitled millenial - how silly of me to be sad about being merely verbally abused.
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will a catholic hospital perform a vasectomy? Both that procedure and abortions are technically barred by doctrine but for some reason only the latter tends to be refused… 
I’ve heard lots of stories about catholic hospitals refusing to do both tubal ligations and vasectomies.
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I this pope is not careful, he could end up like Pope John Paul I.
Until the cheese lobby has the govt pass a bill outlawing the govt from negotiating prices. Cf: Medicare Part D
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Ah, but the few remaining rich will be so fat they can feed multitudes!
Maybe we can try to get our congress to reverse the idea that food surplus is a bad thing, and subsidize farmers who donate surplus to welfare programs instead of subsidizing them to grow less?
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The food banks are wonderful, and while Salvation Army isn’t part of the Catholic Church (I think they’re more of a faith-based ministry), my family benefited from them when they helped my grandfather get a job after he came home from World War II. So yes, they do a lot of good, and that should be celebrated.
But I’ve also heard some real horror stories about Catholic Hospitals placing their values above womens’ health issues. And that is something I cannot agree with.
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oh right, that’s what Jesus meant about the rich man being too fat to get through that door in Jerusalem on the sermon of the mount where he passed around pieces of rich people until everyone was fed. I forgot about that part.
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I’m glad for your grandfather, but I’ve actually been a client of Salvation Army, that sparkle they used to have has faded a bit. From my personal experience in homeless assistance 4 years ago, I’d say 1/3 of the employees are awesome and can’t be thanked enough (especially in cities where they are overburdened because of surrounding territories trying to outlaw homelessness), 1/3 do what’s necessary, and 1/3 have developed a genuine authoritarian dislike for the poors, and consider poors’ station in life just punishment for some sort of moral failure. I’m not really a fan of 2000s SA.
Still, in some areas, it’s the best you can get, in terms of comfort.
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I can’t blame you for that. I’m aware that there are issues with the current S.A., and I’m not as fond of them as I used to be. If it matters, I’m sorry they didn’t help you as much as they should have.
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Actually, I made it through the program in record time. I guess I speak for all the people I’d seen and spoken to there.
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In my neighbourhood, the Salvation Army are notorious as the “sing for your supper” charity. I.e. they use hunger as leverage to force evangelism upon the recipients.
St Vinnies, OTOH, are notorious for burning vast amounts of cash on executive salaries and corporate headquarters.
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I’m sorry for that too.
Basically, many charities are as flawed as the humans that run them. The best we can do is celebrate the good and call out the bad. I don’t think it’s an either/or proposition.
While it’s good that Pope Francis is calling out income inequalities, it’s impossible to deny that an institution as wealthy as the Catholic Church could probably be doing a lot more to help. I also suspect that Francis is limited by the more conservative factions among the organization, some of which have openly questioned his authority on the grounds of his “radical” statements.
It’s lovely to consider a “Shoes of the Fisherman” scenario where the Church sells off its wealth to feed and better the lives of the poor. But consider the repercussions… the Church would go, overnight, from being a mainly spiritual power to a major political player on the world stage. I can imagine several governments that would react rather strongly and negatively to it. So as much as I for one would love to see such a move, I don’t believe that would ever happen. And that’s a damn shame.
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When you need medical care, you aren’t deciding on which of the millions of hospitals in the country you are going to visit, you just go to one of the ones that services your community. And in vast swathes of the U.S. now there is precisely one hospital available, increasingly a Catholic hospital, because those rural ones are the ones the church seems to like to acquire.
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