USCCB Hails Tax Credit Windfall: Apostasy Masquerading as School Choice
The National Catholic Register portal reports that the United States Conference of Catholic “Bishops” (USCCB) has enthusiastically endorsed a federal tax credit scheme—the so-called Education Freedom Tax Credit—embedded within the “One Big Beautiful Bill” of 2025, hailing it as a “transformative opportunity” for Catholic schools. The legislation, championed by the Trump administration, creates a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donations to “scholarship granting organizations” (SGOs), potentially funneling billions into private and religious education. “Bishop” David O’Connell, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Catholic Education, invoked the Church’s teaching on parental rights to justify this collaboration with the secular state. Thirty-one states have opted in; “bishops” in holdout states like Massachusetts and Illinois are pressuring governors to comply. Andrew Ryan, head of the “American Catholic Education Fund,” boasts of national advertising campaigns to solicit donations even from residents of non-participating states. The article presents this financial windfall as a triumph for Catholic education, omitting entirely the supernatural end of Catholic schools: the salvation of souls through the integral formation of the child in the traditio of the Faith, the sacraments, and the reign of Christ the King over all facets of life. This celebration of Caesar’s coin by the conciliar hierarchy is the definitive signature of their apostasy: they have sold the Church’s libertas for a mess of pottage, rendering unto Caesar not only what is Caesar’s, but what belongs exclusively to God.