In this Sunday, April 5, 2020, file photo, The Most Rev. Peter Jugis, Bishop of Charlotte, conducts Palm Sunday services inside the empty St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, N.C. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the service was closed to the public but was live streamed across western North Carolina. Catholic entities in the Charlotte Diocese received more than $8 million in paycheck program aid.

When the coronavirus forced churches to close their doors and give up Sunday collections, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte turned to the federal government's signature small business relief program for more than $8 million.

The diocese's headquarters, churches and schools landed the help even though they had roughly $100 million of their own cash and short-term investments available last spring, financial records show. When the cash catastrophe church leaders feared didn't materialize, those assets topped $110 million by the summer.

As the pandemic began to unfold, scores of Catholic dioceses across the U.S. received aid through the Paycheck Protection Program while sitting on well over $10 billion in cash, short-term investments or other available funds, an Associated Press investigation has found. And despite the broad economic downturn, these assets have grown in many dioceses.Yet even with that financial safety net, the 112 dioceses that shared their financial statements, along with the churches and schools they oversee, collected at least $1.5 billion in taxpayer-backed aid. A majority of these dioceses reported enough money on hand to cover at least six months of operating expenses, even without any new income.Overall, the nation's nearly 200 dioceses, where bishops and cardinals govern, and other Catholic institutions received at least $3 billion. That makes the Roman Catholic Church perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the paycheck program, according to AP's analysis of data the U.S. Small Business Administration released following a public-records lawsuit by news organizations.

Already one of the largest federal aid efforts ever, the SBA reopened the Paycheck Protection Program last month with a new infusion of nearly $300 billion. In making the announcement, the agency's administrator at the time, Jovita Carranza, hailed the program for serving “as an economic lifeline to millions of small businesses.”Church officials have said their employees were as worthy of help as workers at Main Street businesses, and that without it they would have had to slash jobs and curtail their charitable mission as demand for food pantries and social services spiked. They point out the program's rules didn't require them to exhaust their stores of cash and other funds before applying.But new financial statements several dozen dioceses have posted for 2020 show that their available resources remained robust or improved during the pandemic's hard, early months. The pattern held whether a diocese was big or small, urban or rural, East or West, North or South.

This Friday, Jan. 22, 2021, photo shows the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. Overall, the nearly 200 dioceses in the U.S. and other Catholic institutions received at least $3 billion from the federal governmentís small business emergency relief program. That makes the Roman Catholic Church perhaps the biggest beneficiary of the paycheck program, according to data the U.S. Small Business Administration released following a public-records lawsuit by AP and other news organizations.

Father Jim Connell poses for a portrait outside his home in Milwaukee on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. Connell, a retired administrator in the Milwaukee Archdiocese who is also a canon lawyer, said APís findings convinced him that Catholic entities did not need government aid -- especially when thousands of small businesses were permanently closing amid state-ordered health lockdowns. ìWas it want or need?î Connell asked. ìNeed must be present, not simply the want. Justice and love of neighbor must include the common good.