USCCB gets 33% of Its Funding for Communication from the Government: But

It's obvious that the USCCB isn't interested about doing the work of an apostle. What they care about are subsidies and getting that second collection in. What they do with the money is a little harder to decipher than where they get it.


What Gives with Catholic Communication

This last Sunday in most Catholic parishes in the United States, the 2nd collection was for the Catholic Communication Campaign. Half of the money collected stays in each respective diocese and the rest goes to national projects. The USCCB explanation of this need is found here with this interesting comment: “The Catholic Communication Campaign provides essential funding for the Church to engage in using new communication technology in its evangelization efforts,” said Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on CCC. “Many Catholics turn to their mobile devices to find the world. The Church needs to be in that world.”

I was impressed by the mention of mobile devices and our need to “be in that world” since I had just been discussing this very issue with Patti Armstrong. I had specifically asked Patti to research and write about the topic of Catholic apologetics in the age of digital and mobile communication. The fruit of our conversation is in our lead article today — warning it talks about apps. If you are like me, you don’t even want to know about apps.

You see, I use my cell phone to make phone calls (where I actually talk to a person) apparently a form of communication on the endangered species list. Once upon a time, I used a phone that plugged into the wall with a cord. It had a dial — a round thing on it that you turned to indicate a particular number. And if someone was not at home when you called them… guess what you did? You called them back (what a concept!). You did not leave a message. You shrugged, said, “I guess they aren’t home.” And then you called them back — at home, not on a cell phone that they took everywhere so they (and everyone else) were instantly available. I was already a mother when this amazing thing called a wireless phone was invented. I even had one of the first ones (that’s me, early adopter) in the whole apartment complex where I lived . You could actually take your phone and go outside with it! Even like a whole hundred feet away from the base unit! What freedom. By then it was routine to leave messages for people on their phone — the messages were recorded on little tape recorders with little tiny cassette tapes (ask your parents).

Read at... Catholic Exchage...

Here's a link to the 2008 Budget in [in pdf] case you're wondering where we got our figures:

http://www.usccb.org/finance/financial_statements.pdf