As struggling small business owners wonder if they’re receive any government assistance during the coronavirus economy, CBS News reports that anywhere between 12,000 and 13,000 of the 17,000 Catholic churches in the U.S. applied for funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
“Pat Markey, the executive director of the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference, an association of finance officers from Catholic dioceses, estimates that around 6,000 Catholic parishes had their applications for federal funding approved in the first round of PPP and around 3,000 have received loans so far in the second round,” CBS News reports.
According to Markey, the PPP “isn’t about the federal government assisting houses of worship or churches,” it’s about “keeping people on payrolls and a large segment of our society is the not for profit world. And a large segment of that society are churches and houses of worship. And they have people on payrolls too. So, if what this is about is keeping people on payrolls, then we all should have availability to do that.”
Read the full report over at CBS News.
