Nice Work If You Can Get It

Quick quiz. Of the following non-profit organizations, which one has the highest executive compensation package?

A) Food For The Poor
B) World Vision International
C) Catholic Health Association
D) American Medical Association
E) American Bar Association

[cue Jeopardy theme]

Time's up! The correct answer is......C! Yep, the Catholic Health Association paid Sr Carol Keehan $856,093 in total compensation in 2006. (By the way, all her income went to her order.) By comparison, the AMA paid their top exec only $696,521. See? Joining a religious order has a much greater economic benefit than becoming a stupid doctor or something....

Now - second question. Which of the above institutions had the lowest expenses for 2006? I think you know the answer....yep! C again. In 2006, their total expenses were $17,660,797.

If my math is correct, about 5% of expenses went to pay her salary. Not too shabby. Let me go on record as stating I am not jealous. I do not support capping executive pay - and as long as it's earned legally, and is contractually agreed upon, then it really doesn't matter. The moral question is entirely different, and not the point here.

In fact, what Keehan earned back in 2006 really isn't the issue at all.

So what is the issue? The Catholic Key Blog has the answer:

Since the election and during the buildup toward health care reform, Sister Carol Keehan and the Catholic Health Association she leads have come up for sharp criticism from prolife advocates. For her public support of the president's pro-abortion appointees to her campaign to enact health care reform now, she is accused of being at odds with the USCCB and the prolife cause, both of which have serious reservations about current health care proposals.

CHA is not a repository of Catholic social teaching with regard to health care or an association of moral theologians or a charity in service of the poor. It is a trade association. There is nothing wrong with a trade association, but too many reporters, including members of the Catholic press, have sought comment from CHA without recognizing they are primarily an organization with a vested financial interest in the outcome of the health care debate.

[...]

Sister Carol does not keep her salary. It goes to her order. It's noted here to demonstrate that her compensation at CHA is much more in line with a trade association lobbyist than the head of a charity.

Reporters and news consumers should keep that in mind when soliciting CHA for comment on health care reform. Moral concerns are not their bottom line. The bottom line is.

It's important to remember this - CHA is not a charity, and does not represent the Catholic position. If nominal catholics point out that a nun heads the CHA, tell them she's an executive of a lobbyist organization. And if the same nominalites cite the CHA as an example of why Catholics ought to support this health-care reform bill, remind them of the fact CHA is a trade association, not a recognized Catholic charity. In the name of honesty, it would be better if they were to change their name, to something like Sell-out Hospital Association, or Hospital Association of Secular Relativists, or Obama's Our Guy! Hospital Money Machine. But if they were to do that, they'd probably get little press, have less political pull, and rake in lower contributions.

Which might affect Keehan's pay. Hmmm. Can't have that, now, can we?