Born: 3-May-1940 Birthplace: Wichita, KS. While Busch is a practicing Catholic, the Kochs are not, and in fact David Koch supports gay marriage and abortion rights. 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. (We're not sure why the other two are excluded.) ", The American Prospect depends on reader support. 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. 2. 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. The first Jesuit pope and the first from Latin America, Francis has used his pulpit to challenge the moral failings of contemporary global capitalism. 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." (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. But if you have the ability to support independent, non-profit journalism, we are so grateful. The Koch brothers are Catholic. Liberals blame them for everything. 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. 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). 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. Part of HuffPost Religion. Click to View Subscriber Levels: IDEAS, POLITICS & POWER, Copyright 2021 | The American Prospect, Inc. | All Rights Reserved, Koch Brothers’ Latest Target: Pope Francis. ", "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. But none more so than Catholic University of America, which—in the face of much criticism—has just doubled down with another $10 million donation from the Koch Foundation. Ecclesiastical. ... Sacred Heart 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. The Koch brothers, who are not Catholic, have actively thrown their wealth behind conservative and libertarian political causes and candidates that … "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. Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate, 1980. The money has gone to the Busch School of Business & Economics and has been a source of consternation and controversy among some Catholic scholars. 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. He advocated the abolition of Social Security, the FBI, the CIA, and public schools. 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. The conservative Koch brothers are the left's chimera, a fire-breathing monster that is more myth than reality. 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. 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. 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. David H. Koch. "It's one thing to critique, but you need to know something about what you're critiquing," Gregg said. They want to form a generation that thinks they are only responsible for themselves. There are four brothers altogether; however, when one says "Koch brothers", one only means Charles and David. (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. At a foundational level, this is the exact opposite of what Catholic teaching says about the common good. 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 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. All rights reserved. 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. THE KOCHS ARE ONLY TWO of the players in a broader movement spreading a free-market gospel at Catholic institutions. 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. St. Elizabeth Catholic … Your donation keeps this site free and open for all to read. "This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.". 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.". Compared with the nearly $13 million Catholic University has hauled in over the past three years, most are relatively small grants. (They are also generous underwriters of numerous cultural institutions.) 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 … 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. Your voluntary contribution helps keep this website paywall-free. The wealthy Koch brothers are best known for making large donations to politicians, universities, and institutions that support their economically conservative views. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops explicitly supports raising the federal minimum wage. In another conference seminar, Todd Flanders, the headmaster of a pre-K–12 Catholic school in Minnesota, criticized efforts to raise the minimum wage, complained about the "regulatory state" and breezily said of Francis, "Catholics are not required to agree with popes on particular policy questions.". 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. Creighton's institute invited Moore last fall to give an address about economic issues in the 2016 election. Kurt Koch (born 15 March 1950) is a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church. 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. 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 nature of Big Science leads to groupthink," Richards told the group. The editor is at work on another project.) 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”. He's not the only prominent Catholic in the university's circles philosophically allied with the Kochs. 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." 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. 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.