USCCB Budget

Yes, I'm no longer blogging, but...

For those of you keeping score, the budget for the Vatican is reported to be about $250 million. That's about what it costs, say scattered reports, to run an entire government, and conduct the business of the Church in Rome (including dry cleaning all those white cassocks and preserving all those artifacts and historic buildings).

By contrast, the USCCB has a budget of $139 million.

OK, so the USCCB has no diplomatic missions to fund. It has no army to support. No streets to sweep. No centuries-old buildings to maintain. No artwork. No tourists to its modern office building. No Piero Marini productions to stage. No need for somebody to vacuum up dustbunnies in the Paul VI audience hall. And most significantly, it has virtually no canonical authority. It does nothing but issue statements that make Teddy Kennedy proud. And somehow, the USCCB spends more than half of what the Vatican spends each year.

And somehow, none of us can be surprised.

If you live in a diocese where your Bishop isn't a loonie, are you asking your Bishop what's going on back there?

--Curmudgeon

Hat tip to somebody. I saw this a while back somewhere, and meant to post on it before I gave up blogging. As it was, I had to go rediscover the data, but you get the idea.