That’s the track record thus far of Catholic Finance Corporation (CFC), a Minneapolis-based Catholic firm that has issued tens of millions of dollars in loans to regional Catholic organizations and groups over the past few decades.
Michael Laughery, the group’s director of partner services, told CNA that the firm’s Catholic identity is front and center in everything it does. “We’re in the Kennedy Directory; we only serve, by definition, other Catholic organizations,” he said.
CFC, Laughery said, was established in 2000 under the late Archbishop Harry Joseph Flynn. Its purpose was to provide Catholic institutions — specifically those located in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis — with capital improvement loans. “For a roof, or even new computers or a new HVAC system,” Laughery explained.
“It arose out of the Growing in Faith capital campaign the archdiocese was conducting at the time,” Laughery said. Initially, the firm issued loans only within the archdiocese itself, though it has recently expanded those offerings statewide.
“The board last fall did actually loan some money to a parish outside the archdiocese,” Laughery said. “Now it’s evolved. We will loan within the state of Minnesota.”
“That’s Pillar One of our mission, is loans,” Laughery said. “In the archdiocese, since our inception, we’ve had 96 loans over the past 23 years.”
“It’s a revolving loan pool,” he said. “We’re just shy of $100,000,000 loaned out.”
Laughery joked that the setup is “kind of a Bailey Savings & Loan model,” referring to the business-minded yet altruistic bank run by Jimmy Stewart’s character in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
On its website, the firm lists various case studies in which its loans have helped Catholic institutions, including new boilers for a church in St. Paul and major renovations for a parish in Minneapolis.
The institution also offers pro bono financial services. “We’ve given about 42,000 pro bono hours as well,” Laughery said. “It’s been about 20% of our time we devote to pro bono services.”
Expansion into data service
In addition to its ongoing loan program, CFC also offers data analysis services for dioceses around the country.
“We started getting calls” about data consultations, Laughery said. “The focus was primarily the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It was an organic growth into inquiries into education and training.”
Bishops and religious orders outside of the archdiocese, he said, began requesting their consultation services.
“We keep getting more and more calls,” he said. “Rather, a bishop talks to another bishop, a vicar general talks to another vicar general, a prior talks to a prior.”
Laughery said the firm’s data consultants, under the brand of PartnersEdge, specialize in “finance and operations.”
“We’re not faith formation, we’re not evangelization,” he said. “Our expertise is in temporal goods, and in using data to make decision-making.”
Laughery said their consultation approach begins with an assessment of a diocese’s current status and its trajectory.
“We’re trying to help a bishop and their team understand, ‘What is?’ What is our current state? And then help them envision, and invite the Holy Spirit into, the work of understanding: What are we called to? What ought to be?”
“We take them through a facilitated process to get from what is to what ought to be,” he said. “That starts with the data.”
Areas of analysis include priests, financials, sacraments, giving trends, and demographic trends. In some cases a review finds a demographic growth within the local Catholic population, Laughery said; in others there has been a net emigration.
PartnersEdge says on its website that its mission is to help Catholic institutions realize “an improved position of financial strength and security so that they may freely and faithfully fulfill their mission through their various ministries.”
Laughery said the response has been positive. One bishop, he said, described the process as “helping us to develop the new wineskins in which we are going to pour new wine.”
The whole initiative, Laughery said, helps diocesan officials in “understanding the environment in which you’ve lived, the data that’s informing this lived experience, and what the Holy Spirit is calling you to do.”
All of it, he noted, is meant “to let Jesus be known and loved in this particular situation we find ourselves in.”
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Atlanta, Ga., Jan 17, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Scientists and researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta are working on a birth control patch that would inject a contraceptive drug into women’s skin through biodegradable microneedles.
The quarter-sized patch would be applied to the skin for five seconds, allowing the needles “painlessly” to pierce the skin and break away, remaining in the body to slowly administer the contraceptive hormone levonorgestrel.
Currently, the needles are designed slowly to release the contraceptive hormone over the course of one month, though the team of scientists has said that the goal would be to develop a six-month patch.
In an article on the patch recently published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the authors said it could eventually be used instead of the birth control pill, or other forms of long-term birth control such as hormone shots or implantable devices such as IUDs.
“Non-hormonal contraceptive methods, such as condoms and diaphragms, provide physical barriers for pregnancy protection, but these barrier methods, even when accompanied by spermicide, usually have high failure rates due in part to poor patient acceptance and compliance with correct use,” the study, authored by Dr. Mark Prausnitz and team, states.
“Hormonal contraceptives, such as oral pills, vaginal rings, intrauterine devices, subdermal injections and implants, generally provide a better level of effectiveness, but either require frequent dosing, which has significant compliance problems, or delivery by healthcare professionals, which can be especially problematic in low-income countries,” it adds.
“Hence, there has been tremendous interest in a contraceptive that is safe and effective, enables long-term contraception, facilitates good patient access and compliance through self-administration, and has low cost suitable for use globally.”
In the study, the scientists expressed hope that the patch could make long-term contraceptives more widely available, especially in developing countries, since women will be able to apply the patch themselves.
“To provide greater access to contraception, we developed a delivery system for contraception based on a microneedle patch designed to enable self-administration of a long-acting contraceptive that is safe, effective and low cost,” they said.
The study, which was received by Nature Biomedical Engineering in March 2018, was made possible through funding from the United States Agency for International Development.
The Western push to increase access to contraceptives and abortion has been denounced by critics as ideological colonization.
“By what moral right do Westerners send the message that the world would be a better place with fewer Africans in it?” Mary Eberstadt, senior research fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute, told CNA in 2018. She was responding to a report from the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission, which declared a need for universal access to contraception and birth control within the next 12 years, particularly in the developing world.
“Such campaigns are going to look as ugly in history’s rearview mirror as the twentieth-century eugenics movement does today,” she said at the time.
Nigerian Catholic Obianuju Ekeocha, the author of “Target Africa,” has also been an outspoken pro-life advocate who has opposed bringing contraceptives to Africa and other developing places.
“Unlike what we see in the developed Western world, there is actually very high compliance with Pope Paul VI’s Humanae vitae. For these African women, in all humility have heard, understood, and accepted the precious words of the prophetic pope,” Ekeocha wrote in a 2012 open letter to Melinda Gates.
The patch is still in development, and has only been tested on rats thus far. Scientists cited concerns about skin irritation at the site of the patch and the need for more clinical trials before the patch could be released to the general public.
The microneedle patch technology could also potentially be used to deliver vaccines throughout remote and underdeveloped areas as well, the study noted.
A defining theme of Pope Francis’ papacy has been his urging of humanity to better care for the natural environment, which he has done most prominently in his landmark 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ and numerous subsequent writings and speeches.
The pope’s emphasis on this topic — especially his foray into climate science via his recent encyclical Laudate Deum — has variously drawn both praise and consternation from Catholics in the United States, about half of whom do not share Pope Francis’ views on climate change, according to surveys.
In Laudate Deum, which was released in October as a continuation to Laudato Si’, Francis wrote that the effects of climate change “are here and increasingly evident,” warning of “immensely grave consequences for everyone” if drastic efforts are not made to reduce emissions. In the face of this, the Holy Father criticized those who “have chosen to deride [the] facts” about climate science, stating bluntly that it is “no longer possible to doubt the human — ‘anthropic’ — origin of climate change.”
The pope in the encyclical laid out his belief that there must be a “necessary transition towards clean energy sources, such as wind and solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels.” This follows a call from Pope Francis in 2021 to the global community calling for the world to “achieve net zero carbon emissions as soon as possible.”
He further lamented what he called “certain dismissive and scarcely reasonable opinions [on climate change] that I encounter, even within the Catholic Church.”
In light of the new encyclical — which extensively cites the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — Pope Francis was invited to speak at this week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP28. Though the 86-year-old pope was forced to cancel his trip due to health issues, the Vatican has indicated that he aims to participate in COP28 this weekend in some fashion. It announced today that Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin will represent the pope at the conference.
While various Catholic groups have welcomed the pope’s latest encyclical, some Catholics have reacted with persistent doubts, questioning whether the pope’s policy prescriptions would actually produce the desired effects.
How do Americans feel about climate change?
According to a major survey conducted by Yale University, 72% of Americans believed in 2021 — the latest available data year — that “global warming is happening,” and 57% believe that global warming is caused by human activity.
More recent polling from the Pew Research Center, conducted in June, similarly suggests that two-thirds of U.S. adults overall say the country should prioritize developing renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, over the expansion of the production of oil, coal, and natural gas. That same survey found that just 3 in 10 adults (31%) say the U.S. should completely phase out oil, coal, and natural gas. The Yale study found that 77% of U.S. adults support at least the funding of research into renewable energy sources.
Broken down by party affiliation, Pew found that a large majority of Democratic and Democratic-leaning independents — 90% — favor alternative energy sources, while just under half, 42%, of Republicans and Republican-leaning adults think the same. Within the Republican cohort, however, 67% of Republicans under age 30 prioritize the development of alternative energy sources, compared with the 75% of Republicans ages 65 and older who prioritize the expansion of oil, coal, and natural gas.
In terms of the expansion of alternative energy sources, two-thirds of Americans think the federal government should encourage domestic production of wind and solar power, Pew reported. Just 7% say the government should discourage this, while 26% think it should neither encourage nor discourage it.
How do America’s Catholics feel about climate change?
Surveys suggest that Catholics in the United States are slightly more likely than the U.S. population as a whole to be skeptical of climate change, despite the pope’s emphatic words in 2015 and since.
A separate Pew study suggests that 44% of U.S. Catholics say the Earth is warming mostly due to human activity, a view in line with Pope Francis’ stance. About 3 in 10 (29%) said the Earth is warming mostly due to natural patterns, while 13% said they believe there is no solid evidence the planet is getting warmer.
According to the same study, 71% of Hispanic Catholics see climate change as an extremely or very serious problem, compared with 49% of white, non-Hispanic Catholics. (There were not enough Black or Asian Catholics in the 2022 survey to analyze separately, Pew said.)
One 2015 study from Yale did suggest that soon after Laudato Si’ was released, U.S. Catholics were overall more likely to believe in climate change than before. That same study found no change, however, in the number of Americans overall who believe human activity is causing global warming.
Pope Francis’ climate priorities
Beyond his groundbreaking writings, Pope Francis has taken many actions during his pontificate to make his own — admittedly small — country, Vatican City, more sustainable, including the recent announcement of a large order of electric vehicles, construction of its own network of charging stations, a reforestation program, and the continued importation of energy coming exclusively from renewable sources.
Francis has often lamented what he sees as a tepid response from developed countries in implementing measures to curb climate change. In Laudate Deum, he urged that new multinational agreements on climate change — speaking in this case specifically about the COP28 conference — be “drastic, intense, and count on the commitment of all,” stating that “a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact.”
The pope lamented what he sees as the fact that when new projects related to green energy are proposed, the potential for economic growth, employment, and human promotion are thought of first rather than moral considerations such as the effects on the world’s poorest.
“It is often heard also that efforts to mitigate climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels and developing cleaner energy sources will lead to a reduction in the number of jobs,” the pope noted.
“What is happening is that millions of people are losing their jobs due to different effects of climate change: rising sea levels, droughts, and other phenomena affecting the planet have left many people adrift. Conversely, the transition to renewable forms of energy, properly managed, as well as efforts to adapt to the damage caused by climate change, are capable of generating countless jobs in different sectors.”
‘Leave God’s creation better than we found it’
Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation think tank, told CNA that he has noticed a theme of frustration and confusion among many Catholics regarding the Holy Father’s emphasis on climate change.
A self-described outdoorsman and former president of Wyoming Catholic College, Roberts spoke highly to CNA of certain aspects of Laudato Si’, particularly the pope’s insights into what he called “human ecology,” which refers to the acceptance of each person’s human body as a vital part of “accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home.”
Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation. Courtesy of Heritage Foundation.
“I like to think [Pope Francis] personally wrote that, because I could see him saying that,” Roberts said of the passage, which appears in paragraph 155 of the encyclical. Roberts said he even makes a point to meditate on that “beautiful and moving” passage during a retreat that he does annually.
That portion of Laudato Si’ notwithstanding, Roberts said he strongly believes that it detracts from other important issues, such as direct ministry to the poor, when Pope Francis elevates care for God’s natural creation as “seemingly more important than other issues to us as Catholics.” He also said he disagrees with Pope Francis’ policy prescriptions, such as a complete phasing out of fossil fuels, contained in Laudate Deum.
“We of course want to pray for him. We’re open to the teaching that he is providing. But we also have to remember as Catholics that sometimes popes are wrong. And on this issue, it is a prudential matter. It is not a matter of morality, particularly when he’s getting into the scientific policy recommendations,” Roberts said.
Roberts said the Heritage Foundation’s research and advocacy has focused not on high-level, multinational agreements and conferences to tackle the issues posed by climate change but rather on smaller-scale, more community-based efforts. He said this policy position is, in part, due to the historical deference such multinational conglomerates of nations have given to China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases overall.
He said agreements within the U.S. itself, with businesses and all levels of government working together, have produced the best results so far when it comes to improving the environment. He also pointed to examples of constructive action that don’t involve billions of dollars, such as families making the choice to spend more time outdoors or engaging in local activities that contribute to environmental conservation and community life, such as anti-litter campaigns and community gardening. The overarching goal, he said, should be to “leave God’s creation better than we found it.”
Roberts — who said he personally believes humans likely have “very little effect” on the climate — said he was discouraged to read other portions of Laudato Si’, as well as Laudate Deum, that to him read as though they had come “straight out of the U.N.” Despite his criticisms, Roberts urged his fellow Catholics to continue to pray for the Holy Father and to listen to the pope’s moral insights.
“I just think that the proposed solutions are actually more anti-human and worse than the purported effects of climate change,” he added.
‘A far more complex issue’
Greg Sindelar, a Catholic who serves as CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), a conservative think tank that studies the energy industry, similarly expressed concerns to CNA about the potential impact of certain climate change mitigation policies on human flourishing.
Like Roberts, Sindelar spoke highly of certain aspects of the pope’s message while expressing reservations about some of the U.N.-esque solutions proposed in Laudate Deum.
“I think the pope is right about our duty as Catholics to be stewards and to care for the environment. But I think what we have to understand — what we have to balance this with — is that it cannot come at the expense of depriving people of affordable and reliable energy,” Sindelar said in an interview with CNA.
“There’s ways to be environmentally friendly without sacrificing the access that we all need to reliable and affordable energy.”
Greg Sindelar is CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a think tank in America’s leading energy-producing state. Courtesy of Texas Public Policy Foundation
Sindelar said TPPF primarily promotes cheap, reliable access to energy as a means of promoting human flourishing. The free-market-focused group is skeptical of top-down governmental intervention, both in the form of regulation and incentives or disincentives in certain areas of the energy sector.
When asked what he thinks his fellow Catholics largely think about the issue, Sindelar said many of the Catholics he hears from express the view that government policies and interventions rarely produce effective solutions and could potentially hinder access to energy for those in need.
“I think it’s a far more complex issue than just saying we need to cut emissions, and we need to transfer away from fossil fuels, and all these other things. What we need to do is figure out and ensure ways that we are providing affordable and reliable electricity to all citizens of the world,” he reiterated.
“When the pope speaks, when the Vatican speaks, it carries a lot of weight with Catholics around the world, [and] not just with Catholics … and I totally agree with him that we need to be thinking about the most marginalized and the poorest amongst us,” Sindelar continued.
“[But] by going down these policy prescription paths that he’s recommending, we’re actually going to reduce their ability to have access to that,” he asserted.
Sindelar, while disagreeing with Pope Francis’ call for an “abandonment of fossil fuels,” said he appreciates the fact that Pope Francis has spoken out about the issue of care for creation and has initiated so much public discussion.
“I think there is room for differing views and opinions on the right ways to do that,” he said.
Effective mitigation efforts
Susan Varlamoff, a retired biologist and parishioner at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in the Atlanta area, is among those Catholics who are committed to Pope Francis’ call to care for creation and to mitigate the effects of climate change. To that end, Varlamoff in 2016 created a peer-reviewed action plan for the Archdiocese of Atlanta to help Catholics put the principles contained in Laudato Si’ into action, mainly through smaller, more personal actions that people can take to reduce their energy usage.
Retired biologist Susan Varlamoff. Photo courtesy of Susan Varlamoff
The Atlanta Archdiocese’s efforts have since garnered recognition and praise, Varlamoff said, with at least 35 archdioceses now involved in an inter-diocesan network formed to exchange sustainability ideas based on the latest version of the plan from Atlanta.
“It’s fascinating to see what everybody is doing, and it’s basically based on their talents and imaginations,” Varlamoff said, noting that a large number of young people have gotten involved with their efforts.
As a scientist, Varlamoff told CNA it is clear to her that Pope Francis knows what he’s talking about when he lays out the dangers posed by inaction in the face of climate change.
“He understands the science, and he’s deeply concerned … he’s got remarkable influence as a moral leader,” she said.
“Part of what our religion asks us to do is to care for one another. We have to care for creation if we’re going to care for one another, because the earth is our natural resource system, our life support, and we cannot care for one another if we don’t have that life support.”
Responding to criticisms about the financial costs associated with certain green initiatives, Varlamoff noted that small-scale sustainable actions can actually save money. She offered the example of parishes in the Atlanta area that have drastically reduced their electric bills by installing solar panels.
“[But,] it’s not just about saving money. It’s also about reducing fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions, and protecting the natural resources for future generations,” she said.
Moreover, Varlamoff said, the moral imperative to improve the natural environment for future generations is worth the investment. “When [Catholics] give money, for example, for a social justice issue like Walking with Moms in Need or special needs, the payback is improving lives. We’re improving the environment here,” she emphasized.
Let’s leave the disingenuous “Bailey Savings & Loan model” blather in this article to one side. Finance, so-called “Catholic” or otherwise, is about providing money to make money, usually a lot of money: ““We’re not faith formation, we’re not evangelization. Our expertise is in temporal goods, and in using data to make decision-making.”
Less than three years ago the Catholic Church and its 112 dioceses in this country received $3.5 billion in Covid relief. Catholic Charities has revenues of $4.7 billion, $2.9 billion of which came from the US government. The USCCB annually receives billions of dollars to fund illegal immigration and then ship them all over the country with your tax dollars. The amounts are so staggering that Congress informed Catholic Charities and the USCCB last week that it “will continue to investigate your organization’s role in facilitating the border crisis, your potential violations of federal law, and your misuse of taxpayer funds.”
All of this is occurring while 70%+ of nominal Catholics in this country deny the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, Sunday Mass attendance has plummeted to the lowest levels in the country’s history, and overwhelming majorities of nominal Catholics reject the Church’s infallible teaching on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, civil unions/gay marriage, and transgenderism, to name only a few of the most prominent current moral issues.
In today’s American Church, it’s “all about the Benjamin’s” and the secular political and economic power that the Church’s near-total Democratic hierarchy can exercise. The rampant moral and financial corruption in this country’s Church, financed as it is by the American version of the German church tax, is horrifying. The fact that financial vultures like the “Catholic Finance Corporation” profiled here have swooped in to feed on its bloated and decaying corpse should be further proof of what is occurring.
Let’s leave the disingenuous “Bailey Savings & Loan model” blather in this article to one side. Finance, so-called “Catholic” or otherwise, is about providing money to make money, usually a lot of money: ““We’re not faith formation, we’re not evangelization. Our expertise is in temporal goods, and in using data to make decision-making.”
Less than three years ago the Catholic Church and its 112 dioceses in this country received $3.5 billion in Covid relief. Catholic Charities has revenues of $4.7 billion, $2.9 billion of which came from the US government. The USCCB annually receives billions of dollars to fund illegal immigration and then ship them all over the country with your tax dollars. The amounts are so staggering that Congress informed Catholic Charities and the USCCB last week that it “will continue to investigate your organization’s role in facilitating the border crisis, your potential violations of federal law, and your misuse of taxpayer funds.”
All of this is occurring while 70%+ of nominal Catholics in this country deny the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, Sunday Mass attendance has plummeted to the lowest levels in the country’s history, and overwhelming majorities of nominal Catholics reject the Church’s infallible teaching on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, civil unions/gay marriage, and transgenderism, to name only a few of the most prominent current moral issues.
In today’s American Church, it’s “all about the Benjamin’s” and the secular political and economic power that the Church’s near-total Democratic hierarchy can exercise. The rampant moral and financial corruption in this country’s Church, financed as it is by the American version of the German church tax, is horrifying. The fact that financial vultures like the “Catholic Finance Corporation” profiled here have swooped in to feed on its bloated and decaying corpse should be further proof of what is occurring.