Friday, May 25, 2007

Atheist supports Catholic Education

The Archdiocese of New York received a record-breaking gift of $22.5 million from self-styled atheist Robert Wilson to provide educational scholarships for inner-city children.

Wilson, a philanthropist and former Wall Street investor, gave the money to the Cardinal's Scholarship Program, started in 2005, to aid disadvantaged students.

Cardinal Edward Egan, archbishop of New York, has expressed his gratitude for the "historic and far-sighted support from Mr. Wilson for the education and future well-being of our neediest children in the archdiocese."

Wilson, 80, told Bloomberg News, that, although an atheist, he has no problem giving money to fund Catholic schools.

"Let's face it, without the Roman Catholic Church, there would be no Western civilization," Wilson said. "Shunning religious organizations would be abhorrent."

Wilson added, "It was a chance for a very modest amount of money to get kids out of a lousy school system and into a good school system."
(Article)
The references and jokes about various groups, etc. write themselves. Why can't Europe realize what this nonbeliever has stated? And of course there's the statement about Catholic schools and the quality of their religion teaching. I'll leave that to others.

I commend this guy for being honest.
-JG

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