University officials fired back that critics had set out to "manufacture controversy and score political points." Though their last name is Jewish in origin, the Koch brothers have pledged over $3 million to the Catholic University of America. ", The American Prospect depends on reader support. Charles Koch and his brother, David, “fund organizations that advance public policies that directly contradict Catholic teaching on a range of moral issues from economic justice to environmental stewardship,” says a four-page letter to CUA President John Garvey, released Monday (Dec. 16). Your donation keeps this site free and open for all to read. But if you have the ability to support independent, non-profit journalism, we are so grateful. They objected to the school’s recent acceptance of a $1 million donation from the Charles Koch Foundation to help fund a new school of business. While officials at Catholic university's business school and the Acton Institute have tried to dismiss those who raise concerns about the influx of Koch funding at Catholic institutions, some educators warn that big money from right-wing billionaires comes with a cost. Catholic University's decision to accept $1 million from the Charles Koch Foundation to support the study of "principled entrepreneurship" is like a … Koch Bros. "The nature of Big Science leads to groupthink," Richards told the group. "The Kochs are influential and have money to throw around," says Thomas Kelly, a Creighton University theology professor. The Koch brothers and their allies need to understand, … By contrast, the Kochs champion a far-right ideology that scoffs at climate change and workers' rights. The money has gone to the Busch School of Business & Economics and has been a source of consternation and controversy among some Catholic scholars. "It's one thing to critique, but you need to know something about what you're critiquing," Gregg said. Francis directly links what he calls "an economy of exclusion" to the global climate crisis, saying that the "cry of the earth and the cry of the poor" are inseparable. Back to top. Creighton's institute invited Moore last fall to give an address about economic issues in the 2016 election. All rights reserved. After the business school at Catholic University announced its first $1 million donation from the Koch Foundation three years ago, 50 Catholic theologians and scholars raised alarms. Busch, in contrast, has called the minimum wage "an anti-market regulation that leads to unemployment" and claims it does "great harm" to workers. The donation to the Washington-based university comes just over a year after the Koch Foundation gave an initial $1 million grant that allowed CUA to launch its own School of Business and Economics. But from the moment the first CUA donation was announced in the fall of 2013, many Catholic theologians and others raised questions about why the only pontifical university in the country would take so much money from the Kochs. Critics of the CUA gift say it is ironic that the school would seek such massive support from a social liberal when Catholic charities are not allowed to take any money from any person or group that supports abortion rights or gay rights. The wealthy Koch brothers are best known for making large donations to politicians, universities, and institutions that support their economically conservative views. One influential figure in this effort is the Reverend Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest who founded the Koch-linked Acton Institute. As people left, Cornwall pamphlets bearing the message "Forget 'Climate Change'-Energy Empowers the Poor" were handed out at the door. "Koch shouldn't be attacked, but applauded.". Dozens of theologians and academics wrote to CUA president John Garvey and Abela expressing concern that “by accepting such a donation you send a confusing message to Catholic students and other faithful Catholics that the Koch brothers’ anti-government, Tea Party ideology has the blessing of a university sanctioned by Catholic bishops.”, They renewed that criticism last February, saying the Kochs’ libertarian-leaning positions “are in direct conflict with traditional Catholic values.”. He warned of the "expensive public policies" promoted by organizations that have been "co-opted" by radical leftists. The Chicago-based Heartland Institute, which has received Koch funding over the years, spearheaded a press conference before the pope's first visit to the U.S. last fall to disseminate the message that "Pope Francis' views on global warming are scientifically in error, and his views on capitalism are outdated and wrong.". Back to top. THE KOCHS ARE ONLY TWO of the players in a broader movement spreading a free-market gospel at Catholic institutions. Read more. Liberals blame them for everything. Busch, a philanthropist who owns several luxury hotels and founded the Napa-based winery Trinitas Cellars, sits on the university's board of trustees, and recently gave the university $15 million, its largest-ever donation. A few months later, at a conference sponsored by Catholic University’s Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies, the Honduran cardinal who is one of Francis’ top advisers blasted today’s free market system as “a new idol” that is increasing inequality and excluding the poor. Koch Brothers’ Latest Target: Pope Francis. The conservative Koch brothers are the left's chimera, a fire-breathing monster that is more myth than reality. Koch Industries, meanwhile, is notorious for its abysmal record of covering up toxic spills, and for underwriting well-funded lobbying and disinformation campaigns to cast doubt on the overwhelming scientific consensus about the severe risks of human-induced climate change. Francis has sharply challenged what he describes as the "dictatorship of an impersonal economy" and calls for "a legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state. "To yoke human freedom to the same market competition that has given rise to consumerism, materialism, value relativism, and the commodification of labor can't be squared with the Catholic ideal of human dignity.". Abela, the founding dean of the business school, struck a less than Francis-like note when he told a Catholic news outlet that while Catholic teaching requires respect for the environment, "it doesn't say if you question global warming or climate change that's a sin." In fact, just last month, the pope's message for the "World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation" specifically noted that 2015 was the warmest year on record. Kurt Koch (born 15 March 1950) is a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church. As Catholics’ spiritual leader, Pope Francis, arrives in Washington D.C. for an historic address to the United States Congress (one-third of which is Catholic), new research by the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) reveals that the oil billionaire Koch Brothers spent at least $23 million to elect 62 Catholic Congressmen. "This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.". Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate, 1980. Part of HuffPost Religion. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Ecclesiastical. KochFacts is a website belonging to Koch Industries, the company owned and run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. Our mission is built on Carl and Paula Koch’s vision to strengthen and propagate the Roman Catholic faith by providing grant support for a wide variety of evangelization efforts. When adjunct professors at a Catholic university in Pittsburgh, who make near-poverty wages and often lack health insurance, launched an organizing drive, Sirico argued in The New York Times that the church's historic support for unions was conditional. He has described inequality as the "root of social evil," and has called climate change "one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.". (They are also generous underwriters of numerous cultural institutions.) The Catholic Church is in real need of it's own version of KochFacts.com. "For us, promoting limited government alongside the Kochs is an important part of heeding Pope Francis' call to love and serve the poor," they wrote in a column that went on to parrot a litany of Republican talking points about the "insatiable growth" of government. A well-financed network of conservative clergy and Catholic intellectuals on the right churns out research and books, and hosts conferences that often send a decidedly different message than Pope Francis does when it comes to the economy and climate change. "I've learned a lot from the Koch family," Busch acknowledged in an interview with The Catholic World Report. Mentions of Koch’s theory are … That's just not the case in Pittsburgh today.". Controversial, Capitalist Koch Brothers Pledge Millions To Catholic University Business School, Throwing food away is like stealing from the tables of the the poor, the hungry! The editor is at work on another project.) In response to Katrina vanden Heuvel’s “Koch Brothers Exposed.” April 23, 2012 John Breithaupt : I am a recent convert to the Catholic Church and have never regretted my decision for an … If you are scraping by right now, please don’t give us anything. One bedrock principle of Catholic social teaching is that workers should receive a living wage. His own economic views-like those of the Kochs- are often in tension with Catholic tradition. Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the institute has a Rome office near the Vatican, and also has ties to Catholic University's business and economics school. "People were being brutalized. The occasion was a $1,700-a-person conference, hosted by The Catholic University of America, focused on integrating Catholic social teaching and business. Richards, who goes by "Free Market Jay" on Twitter and is the executive editor of the right-wing news outlet The Stream, delivered an environmental message that went over well with the business leaders, libertarian-leaning college students and aspiring entrepreneurs in the room. The Kochs help "advance public policies that directly contradict Catholic teaching on a range of moral issues from economic justice to environmental stewardship," the scholars stated in an open letter to the university. I encourage everyone to reflect on the problem of thrown away and wasted food to identify ways and means that, by seriously addressing this issue, are a vehicle of solidarity and sharing with the needy. He advocated the abolition of Social Security, the FBI, the CIA, and public schools. More than two dozen Catholic universities receive funding from the Koch Foundation. Another letter from Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice criticized the university's "potentially misleading message" regarding the church's commitment to unions and workers' rights. You can sign up as a subscriber with a range of benefits, including an opt-in to receive the print magazine by mail. It's striking that over the course of several days Pope Francis rarely came up. St. Elizabeth Catholic … "Because God told us to be good stewards, that doesn't mean we have to drive a Prius or support the Paris climate accords," Richards quipped. The $1.75 million dollar grant from the Charles Koch Foundation, one of several nonprofits with ties to the industrialist brothers, is part of a $3 million pledge to CUA announced in January that includes $500,000 from the Busch Family Foundation and $250,000 each from three business leaders. Better known for their high-dollar political spending, the billionaire Koch brothers have also poured millions into Catholic University’s business school to promote a free-market orthodoxy sharply at odds with the teachings of Pope Francis. For those who regard capitalism and Christianity as mortal enemies, few villains loom as large as Charles Koch, whose name in some quarters has become a … Roll mouse over image for a description. Leftist Catholics Wary of Koch $1M Donation to Catholic University. He quoted Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, saying that environmental degradation and the impact of climate change are "a sin against ourselves and a sin against God.". Catholic Schools – In many areas of the world, the local Catholic School is the primary means of evangelization and, due to the presence of the religious men and women who live and work there, it is also the face of the Church in that community. Your voluntary contribution helps keep this website paywall-free. The Koch brothers, who are not Catholic, have actively thrown their wealth behind conservative and libertarian political causes and candidates that … Click to View Subscriber Levels: IDEAS, POLITICS & POWER, Copyright 2021 | The American Prospect, Inc. | All Rights Reserved, Koch Brothers’ Latest Target: Pope Francis. The author of Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for A Free Economy, Sirico is a Brooklyn native with a sharp wit who is as comfortable dishing commentary on Fox News as he is waxing philosophical about Saint Augustine. 2. (Full disclosure: I work for Faith in Public Life, which helped promote the Catholic scholars' letter.) ", "Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories, which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world," the pope wrote in his first major teaching document, The Joy of the Gospel, released in 2013. The articles on the Catholic University’s website detailing Koch’s donations of $1 million in December 2013 and $1.75 million in January 2015, mention that students would be studying this philosophy of “principled entrepreneurship”. The Koch brothers are billionaire siblings known for their numerous contributions to right-wing causes. Decorating, Inc. Quality Craftsmanship ⃜ Since 1930 . Can a Catholic university legitimately take money from the likes of the Koch Brothers? Many Catholic universities are implicated. The university's business school is named for Tim Busch, a Catholic CEO and Orange County, California, attorney who specializes in estate planning for wealthy clients. "Radical market ideologies really are heretical," Schneck, the director of the university's Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies, told the Prospect. Among the well-heeled guests was a lobbyist from Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a $130 million trade group aligned with the powerful industrialists Charles and David Koch. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! Their dispersion of money into universities is part of a unified, effective political strategy. The pope, Moore wrote, "has allied himself with the far left and has embraced an ideology that would make people poorer and less free." Those statements have generated a great deal of friction and unusually direct and sharp criticism of Francis from Catholic conservatives, especially in the U.S. by John Gehring. He is … Francis himself has focused on economic inequality in the nearly two years since he has been pope, repeatedly denouncing the current capitalist system and in particular the “trickle down” economics favored by many Republicans and libertarians. The most politically active sons were Charles Koch and David H. Koch who bought out their brothers Frederick and Bill in 1983.. David H. Koch was the Libertarian Party's vice-presidential candidate in 1980. The first Jesuit pope and the first from Latin America, Francis has used his pulpit to challenge the moral failings of contemporary global capitalism. (RNS) Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch recently made headlines by pledging nearly $900 million to help elect candidates who support their libertarian strain of economic conservatism, but the industrialists are also nearly doubling their investment in the business school of Catholic University of America, which is overseen by the U.S. bishops. A onetime activist on the left in the 1960s, Sirico has built a formidable base of operations with the help of the Koch Foundation and the Christian conservative DeVos family, the billionaire heirs to the Amway fortune who are well known for bankrolling Republican candidates, and anti-tax and anti-union campaigns. The grant fits with the Kochs’ strategy of funding business and other programs at universities around the country. West Virginia was ranked last in a 2012 Gallup poll measuring thirteen metrics to determine which states will be the best places to live in the future. That’s despite the fact that many Catholics — including Pope Francis — say the kind of unregulated capitalism that the Kochs promote runs counter to church teaching. Some conservatives have responded by arguing that Francis is not talking about capitalism as it is practiced in the U.S., or that he simply doesn’t understand economics. Born: 3-May-1940 Birthplace: Wichita, KS. 1. The billionaire brothers aren't known for making public statements about faith, but rather for their defining creed of "economic liberty," which they promote with missionary zeal by spending millions to lower corporate taxes, chip away at environmental safeguards, and erode worker's rights. Creighton University, a Catholic, Jesuit institution in Nebraska, has brought in more than $4 million from the Koch Foundation and from the family of an Omaha entrepreneur named C.L. Stephen Schneck, a professor at Catholic University who organized a conference two years ago at the campus, which highlighted the incompatibility of Catholic teachings and economic libertarianism, says efforts to demonize government and sanctify markets are antithetical to the Catholic moral tradition. The Koch family (/ k oʊ k / KOHK) is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities (active role in opposing climate change legislation, donating to libertarian, criminal justice reform, and Republican Party causes) and their control of Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2017 revenues of $100 billion). "They put libertarian thought in front of young people, which is very attractive because it's based on self-interest and individualism. On a spring night in downtown Washington earlier this year, hedge fund managers and CEOs mingled with religious scholars and priests at a cigar reception on the 11th floor of the Renaissance Hotel. Asked directly about the pope's persistent challenges to the "new tyranny" of unfettered capitalism during one lecture, Acton research director Samuel Gregg, author of the book Tea Party Catholic, offered a dismissive retort. As the cocktail chatter turned to complaints about government regulations and the power of markets to help the poor, the scene felt more fitting to a conservative political fundraiser than a conference at the nation's only Vatican-chartered university. In a Jan. 22 statement announcing the new gift, Abela said that the donation will help the school create “a cadre of faculty dedicated to research exploring how we can make business and economics more humane.” As if anticipating criticism, he added that is also “a moral imperative that Pope Francis has been championing with great passion.”, That same day, Tim Busch, co-founder of the Busch Foundation and a Koch ally, wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal arguing that “the principles behind this initiative and the principled entrepreneurship program are consistent with Catholic teaching.”. Moore, a Catholic, last year blasted Pope Francis in Forbes magazine as "a complete disaster when it comes to his policy pronouncements." If some conservatives have tried to identify themselves with a popular pope even as they undermine his message, others have directly attacked Francis. (Daily Clips will not publish Thursday December 19. They want to form a generation that thinks they are only responsible for themselves. Abela is one of several faculty members who have won Acton's $10,000 top award for studying the "relationship between religion and economic liberty." Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost's next chapter. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the university's president, John Garvey, and the business school's founding dean, Andrew Abela, declared that they would not "cave to demands made by the liberal social justice movement," and wrote that it would be a "mistake to stifle debate by pretending that genuinely controversial positions are official church teaching.". The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops explicitly supports raising the federal minimum wage. There are four brothers altogether; however, when one says "Koch brothers", one only means Charles and David. Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga was joined at the conference, and in his critique, by Bishop Blase Cupich, who in September was personally tapped by Francis to be the new archbishop of Chicago, the pontiff’s most important U.S. appointment to date. The phrase "Koch brothers" generally refers to the sons of Fred C. Koch. (RNS) Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch recently made headlines by pledging nearly $900 million to help elect candidates who support their libertarian strain of economic conservatism, but the industrialists are also nearly doubling their investment in the business school of Catholic University of America, which is overseen by the U.S. bishops. In particular, the letter's writers pointed out that they believed the Koch brothers, who have donated millions of dollars to conservative and tea party causes, stood in opposition to the Catholic church's teaching "the positive role for government, an indispensable role for unions, just tax policies, and the need for prudent regulation of financial markets in service of the common good." The glaring contrast between the Kochs' ideology and both Pope Francis's priorities and traditional Catholic social teaching is apparently lost on some wealthy conservative Catholics. In an encyclical last June-the first-ever devoted entirely to ecology-Francis assailed climate deniers and called for a transition away from oil dependency. Net worth $17B (Forbes 2007). While Busch is a practicing Catholic, the Kochs are not, and in fact David Koch supports gay marriage and abortion rights. The Koch brothers are Catholic. It's a libertarian agenda that stands in stark contrast with the communitarian tradition of Catholicism, and that is also hard to square with the priorities of Pope Francis. ©2021 Verizon Media. According to an investigation last year by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity, the foundation gave $19.3 million to 210 colleges in 2013 alone. Gender: Male Religion: Roman Catholic Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occup. It's a position that the Catholic Church has officially supported since at least 1891, when Pope Leo XIII affirmed that right and also the right of workers to organize. IN "LITTLE ROME," THE Brookland neighborhood of northeast Washington that houses the university's campus, a theological college for Dominican friars and headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Kochs have some influential fans. (We're not sure why the other two are excluded.) The money funds the university's Institute for Economic Inquiry, which cranks out research that advocates for the privatization of state services and touts an economic philosophy more in line with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce than traditional Catholic teaching. Some scholars say the Kochs' ideology can't be justified in Catholic terms. At a foundational level, this is the exact opposite of what Catholic teaching says about the common good. Among the speakers to address Creighton University's Koch-backed Institute for Economic Inquiry is Stephen Moore, an economist at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., and a campaign adviser to Donald Trump. "In the industrial revolution, the church was concerned about communism and not just capitalism but savage capitalism," he told The Times. He went on to argue that carbon dioxide has "very positive effects" on the atmosphere, and that many scientists and research organizations are misguided alarmists on climate change. Werner. "There are no global policies to date that make any sense at all." Back to Portfolio. Catholic is not the only university to take money from the Koch Foundation, which is efficiently building a free-market "talent pipeline" in the nation's colleges and universities. At a four-day Acton conference in Grand Rapids in June-an annual gathering dubbed "Acton University" that attracts more than a thousand participants from 50 countries-one of the featured lecturers was Jay Richards, a research professor in Catholic University's business school. Today is National Voter Registration Day! In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Busch explained why the university accepted the Koch funding and gushed about the "compatibility of capitalism and Catholicism." Than Bill … the Koch brothers by right now, please don t. Institute invited Moore last fall to give an address about economic issues in the 2016 election 's thing! 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