Faith-Based Initiative

I recently posted here (see column on the right under my name) the paper I delivered at Villanova's Second Annual Symposium on Catholic Social Thought and the Law, entitled, "Subsidiarity and the Use of Faith-Based Initiatives in the Fight Against Poverty." The paper explores reasons faith-based organizations offer promise in the addressing poverty, discusses examples of succussful initiatives, and considers ways the work of such organiztions could be facilitated, while recognizing that there is still a substantial role for the government to play in areas where faith-based organizations can not be relied upon.
One of the points I made in the piece is that despite Bush Administration's executive orders and emphasis paid to their faith-based intitiative, no real additional funds have been allocated by the federal government to nongovernmetnal providers of social services. This morning's New York Times reported (p.A21, "Person and Political, Bush's Faith Blurs Lines") the recently released findings of a report of the Rockefeller Institute that the funds available to faith-based organizations has acutally been quite small and have shown little growth in the last few years.
--Susan