As a publisher of a Catholic website, I receive lots of information that may be of interest to readers. Lately, that has included press releases about the activities of USCCB-related organizations like the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD).
The CCHD has been under scrutiny by pro-life Catholics for about as long as I can remember. The reason? For appropriating funds to groups with records incompatible with the Church’s pro-life teachings. In 2011, 1P5 contributor Pat Archbold revealed that CCHD head Ralph McCloud had, during his first year working for the US bishops, simultaneously served as Treasurer for the campaign of Wendy Davis – then in the process of unseating a pro-life incumbent in the Texas state senate. (Two years later, she would become best known for her 11-hour filibuster in the Texas state legislature to block a bill seeking to enact more restrictive abortion regulations. Davis was also endorsed by Planned Parenthood.)
Despite this, McCloud is still the head of the CCHD. And since 2011, not a few stories have come out about the organization’s consistent failure to identify appropriate recipients of its funding. Just this month alone, three additional press releases have crossed my desk from the Lepanto Institute alone:
- January 5th – CCHD linked by funding to Planned Parenthood-affiliated Merced Organizing Project.
- January 13th – CCHD linked by funding to an organization performing same-sex “marriage.”
- January 20th – CCHD linked by funding to an organization tasked with helping to establish marijuana farms.
These are only the most recent stories that I’ve seen. This sort of thing appears to be happening with embarrassing regularity – making it pretty hard to ignore. The Lepanto Institute encourages Catholics to contact CCHD about the sizable grants they’re giving to suspect organizations:
The main phone number for the CCHD is 202-541-3210. The email address for the CCHD is [email protected]. And to contact Ralph McCloud, the director of the CCHD, call 202-541-3367 or email [email protected].
I decided to contact Mr. McCloud on Friday of last week, to ask why the CCHD doesn’t partner with an independent group like Lepanto — clearly very effective at finding this information — to vet their grant recipients ahead of time. It seems like a great strategy – it would save CCHD a lot of negative attention, and move everyone toward the shared goal of ensuring that the funds of faithful Catholics are not going to organizations that promote abortion, contraception, same-sex “marriage,” and other anti-Catholic agendas. I don’t claim to know how the logistics of such a partnership would work, but from my outsider’s perspective, it seems preferable to an endless barrage of bad press based on even worse funding decisions.
As of this writing, I have not received a response from Mr. McCloud.
Making matters worse, I received yet another release from the Lepanto Institute this evening, revealing that Catholic Relief Services was involved in the development of an African sex-education program “aimed at children as young as 10, encourages condom use, promotes abortifacient contraception, normalizes homosexuality and masturbation and lists Planned Parenthood as a resource.”
I found myself thinking, At least it isn’t CCHD this time.
This is a sad state of affairs. Obviously, people make mistakes. Administrative work is often quite tedious, and things can be overlooked. But grant after grant, affiliation after affiliation, USCCB organizations have shown an inexcusable lack of discernment.
Enough to make any reasonable person wonder if it’s really a mistake.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to question if, when I give my money to a Catholic organization, it’s going instead to something evil. Which is why I don’t give money to anything USCCB-related. Neither do any of my friends.
Maybe they don’t need my money – or yours. But they do need to follow God’s laws. I hope and pray that they’ll commit themselves to right action, and soon. I really don’t want to read any more press releases like these.
Maybe they will be more dissurning with they finds once they suffer a serious funding shortfall. I’m not holding my breath. The staff of the USCCB is an inside the beltway organaization beholden to liberal solutions. Here is an idea, fire the whole staff, relocal the organization to Lincoln, NE or Stubenville, OH and staff it with orthodox Catholics. Maybe will get some clear documents without the pandering and DC talking points.
This is an excellent suggestion. Lincoln or Stubenville, makes sense to me.
On a similar note, I don’t live in the Lincoln diocese, but I have given and will continue to give money to that diocese because Bishop Conley is a devout successor to the Apostles. I have also considered giving to Bishops Paprocki, Etienne, Olmstead, and Jenky. We must tithe, of course, but we need not give to our own bishops if they are betraying the head of the Catholic Church, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I gave up being a sheep a long time ago when it comes to supporting the social justice programs of the Church. It may be USCCB affiliates, the Bishop’s Appeal, or any other form of fundraiser put forth by the priest during Mass.. If I call and they do not give me the list of organizations they support I boycott. No donations. Ever.
Yup.
I don’t give to either of these organizations and I only give to programs I know about. I didn’t give anything to the Bishops Appeal because I no longer trust church management. I am still very Catholic I just can’t reconcile what this Pope says with what the Faith stands for.
The USCCB is a group bishops who talk about many topics concerning the Church in the Untied States. I believe it is like a think tank. What the USCCB does or promotes is not binding on your bishop. Each bishop is free to legislate, within the limits of Canon Law, in his particular diocese. The person you should be talking to is your own bishop.
“On the Service of Charity” Motu Proprio went into effect in Dec., 2012.
All Catholic Bishops are bound by this – as well as the USCCB.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/motu_proprio/documents/hf_ben-xvi_motu-proprio_20121111_caritas_en.html
The USCCB and their charities (CCHD, Catholic Charities, CRS) should get out of partnering with the Federal Government by receiving approx. $63 million dollars each year in Federal Grants do to the government’s work and the government’s bidding.
Mt 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” – JESUS.
Jesus never taught us to partner with any government.
We simply must do our best to help the poor with what God gave us.