Tuesday, April 07, 2015

For a few dollars more (Catholic Relief Services, etc.)


Our correspondent, Guy Noir, sent us an interesting cluster of links a few days back about Catholic charities and gross inordinancies in salaries of CEOs of these NGOs:

Concerning Matt C. Abbott's "The controversy surrounding Catholic Relief Services" (Renew America, March 26, 2015), Noir writes, "The entire article is interesting, but this stuck out like a sore to me:
... for a government-funded NGO that takes in just under a billion dollars per year, $460,000 is not unreasonable for a CEO's salary. For a Catholic charity that serves the poor, it shows a disconnect bordering on the extreme.
Then there's this article about Dr. Carolyn Y. Woo, President and CEO of Catholic Relief Services on the organization's website, about which Noir comments:
Note that this CEO is married to a Dr. I imagine is also a high earner. I am still confused why people are so self-righteous about the "one percent," when CEOs of associations and college presidents, institutions set up to be altruistic and not profit-driven, make these salaries of over $300,000. It all suggests not that there are a rich few, but that there is a sizable wealthy class steering not simply robber baron businesses but our entire culture. And so we are given moral instruction from a tier of folks who do their grocery shopping at Whole Foods.
Finally, this interesting aside, by Matthew Archbold, "Wide Disparity in Catholic College Presidents’ Salaries, From $1 Million to Zero" (Catholic Education Daily, August 22, 2013).

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