LGBT laws help push Omaha archdiocese out of counseling ministry
The Archdiocese of Omaha has announced that its charitable branch will no longer provide behavioral health services in order to avoid relying on government funding. Significant financial losses and increasing government encroachment on religious principles drove the decision for Catholic Charities of Omaha to transfer its residential substance abuse and mental health services to other providers after fulfilling current contracts. “It no longer makes sense for us to partner with the government,” Deacon Rim McNeil, the archdiocese’s chancellor, told LifeSiteNews, citing decreasing reimbursements and such things as government hiring regulations. “It becomes to where you can’t authentically live the mission entrusted to you.” The disparity between government payments and the organization’s expenses has continued to increase and become unsustainable, he said. Catholic Charities of Omaha lost more than $400,000 out of its $14 million budget last year, Deacon McNeil told the O