Menu
Joshua Dubois, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is seen in an October, 2010 file photo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
While the words “Obama administration” and “Catholic” have been used together in recent weeks frequently to only highlight discord between the executive branch and the U.S. bishops over the administration’s mandate requiring coverage of contraceptives in health care plans, federal funding figures may tell a different story.
It’s a story of “partnership” and of the “deep respect” the president has “for the work of Catholic organizations around the country that are serving people and are helping the most vulnerable,” says one senior White House official.
Speaking in an exclusive phone interview late last week, Joshua DuBois, head of the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, pointed to the administration’s efforts to help funnel funds — estimated by the White House to total some $1.5 billion since 2008 — to agencies like Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services in evincing that partnership.