Catholic Consciense For Sale??

My fellow blogger at Acts of the Apostacy on January 31st put up a post regarding a press conference with White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.  During that conference Carney mentioned that the Feds gave "over $2 billion" to the Church over the past three years.  The AofA blogger seems to think that Carney might have fired a shot across the bow towards the Church, saying "shut up if you like your money".

In far too many ways in the past that is precisely what the various chanceries have done.  I would daresay that is a prime reason why there is no obedience to Canon 915 with respect to prominent Catholic pro-abortion politicians.

AofA made the following key statement: "Should the HHS mandate get overturned in court because it violates the 1st Amendment – and even if it doesn’t get overturned – it behooves the Catholic Church in America to immediately, absolutely and transparently refuse any more funding from the United States government.  Because the bills always come due, and they always cost more than the estimate."  I whole-heartedly agree.  Moreover, I'd add that the Catholic Church should divest itself of funding from all levels of government for the same reasons.  We in Maryland are now feeling the pain from many years of the Maryland Catholic Conference's endless pursuits of state funding for this project or that charity.

He adds, "And if the Church loses its tax-exempt status?  Well, maybe that ought to go as well.  Then, as a result, the Church will be freer to evangelize and perform Her mission in the world.  And maybe – just maybe – Catholics throughout the nation will truly come to depend on God instead of on government, as we ought.   Government doesn’t answer prayers, at least not without some hefty strings attached."  Again, I'm in complete agreement.  The Church needs to start being what Christ designed it to be - not some "faith-based" lackey of the state that's addicted to governmental grants.