Catholics/Charity of Catholics

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Expert: - 6/5/2006


Question
My husband asserts, and I tend to believe him, that the Catholic Church is the world's largest charity.  He cites a series that was published in the New York Times several years ago that described the role of the Church and charity.  Are you familiar with it?  I cannot seem to find it.

Answer
Hi... I can't find that particular article in the NYT but these make the same assertion:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Catholics-lead-rise-in-charity-revenue/2005/...

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_15/b3778004.htm

And the following provide somewhat critical views:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0205/06/lt.16.html

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/roman_cathol...

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Michael Clark, Ph.D.

Expertise

I'm a progressive Catholic--not a liberal, conservative nor a single-minded critic of Catholicism. I simply believe that adults in the 21C should use the mind God gave them and not just repeat ancient and medieval modes of thinking.

I can probably help with questions that intelligently and respectfully question those aspects of Catholicism that are not infallible. But if you're looking for someone to vigorously defend or perhaps refute Catholicism as a whole, that's not me. So please ask another expert.

Experience

I run an educational website earthpages.org and know what the web has to offer. I might suggest hyperlinks and/or book titles as I have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and a considerable personal library.

Publications
Print Media:
My table from "Religions and Cults" at earthpages.org is reproduced with permission in L. Lindsey, S. Beach and B. Ravelli, Core Concepts in Sociology, 2nd ed., p. 157

World Wide Web:
My online article "Letter to God" coauthored with Buddhist monk, E. Raymond Rock, appears on several different spirituality-based websites, including http://tinyurl.com/db7a5o

I've interviewed, as a Christian, a self-proclaimed mystic: http://tinyurl.com/cawykr

My articles appeared at the former New View magazine nuvunow.ca and are published at earthpages.org.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology
For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

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