Federally Funded Catholic Relief Services Paid Future Obama Ambassador $384K
December 6, 2013 - 10:26 AM
By
Michael W. Chapman
http://www.cnsnews.com/sites/default...t-295x3691.jpgU.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Ken Hackett, the former president of Catholic Relief Services. (AP)
(CNSNews.com) – Ken Hackett, the new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, previously headed the non-profit charity Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which receives hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government grants each year, and which paid him $384,013 in total compensation in 2011. He received similar compensation in earlier years.
President Barack Obama nominated Ken Hackett to be the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See in June 2013 and Hackett was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 1. He presented his credentials personally to Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 21.
Between 2003 and 2011, Hackett was president of Catholic Relief Services, which is headquartered in Baltimore and whose
mission is to carry out “the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas.”
Between 1993 and 2003, Hackett held the No. 2 position at CRS as its executive director. He has worked at the non-profit since 1972. Hackett retired from CRS in December 2011; for that year, the charity’s
total revenues were $822,944,000.
Of those revenues, $224,046,000 came from private donations and the balance of $592,765,000 came from public support, including U.S. government grants, other public grants, and in-kind gifts. (A further $6,133,000 in revenue was generated from investments and "other.")
http://www.cnsnews.com/sites/default...034953_300.jpg(AP Photo)
Catholic Relief Services has been taking grants from the U.S. government, what it calls USG grants, since the early 1960s.
In its 2011 annual report, CRS said it received $351,625,000 in USG grants. The money from the U.S. government represented 42.7% of CRS's budget that year.
Many of the grants CRS received from the U.S. government came from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Others came from the Department of State, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Then-CRS President Ken Hackett told contributors in CRS's 2011 annual report: “The gifts you shared with us totaled $224 million, which helped leverage another $611 million in resources from the U.S. government and other sources.”