Catholic bishops nationwide are asking their flocks to fund an organization that promotes abortion, homosexuality, radical feminism, and a number of other liberal, anti-Catholic issues. This weekend marks the annual fundraising drive in parishes across the country for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the charitable arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The purported mission of the CCHD is to fight poverty, but a recent exposé by Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM) revealed that the CCHD has for years been funneling grant money to leftist organizations.
Here are some of the groups highlighted in the report:
• Chinese Progressive Association (CPA) — CCHD has funded this association with tens of thousands of grant dollars over the past four years. CPA defends homosexual marriage and urges voters to support abortion “rights.” After BVM published its research, CCHD defunded this group.
• Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN) — This network uses CCHD grant money to promote homosexual “marriage,” contraception, and the “morning after” (read: abortion) pill.
• Women’s Community Revitalization Project — Prior to the release of the BVM report, this project was listed as a partner with Women Vote PA, a liberal group that also supports a radical leftist agenda and contains links from its website to the ACLU, the Center for Lesbian & Gay Civil Rights, the National Organization for Women, and Planned Parenthood.
• The Rebecca Project for Human Rights — This group, allied with Planned Parenthood, has urged President Obama to use tax dollars to promote contraception and abortion initiatives both domestically and overseas, as well as to promote pornographic sex education.
• Young Workers United — Young Workers United promotes same-sex marriage, abortion, and decriminalizing prostitution. CCHD defunded this organization after release of the BVM report.
The BVM research revealed many other troubling connections. It showed several CCHD grant recipients in support of Obamacare, and several affiliated with other liberal institutions such as Mobilize the Immigrant Vote (MIV), which promotes abortion and same-sex marriage. Not included in BVM’s report is the fact that CCHD awarded more than $7 million in grants to ACORN before that group’s recent scandal, as reported by Michael Voris with RealCatholicTV.net. CCHD dropped ACORN in 2008 but continues to fund other Saul-Alinsky-inspired organizations. A case in point is Gamaliel Foundation, a former employer of Barak Obama in his younger days.
CCHD chairman Bishop Roger P. Morin initially responded to the BVM research with a disclaimer that the groups in question had “taken action in conflict with CCHD’s guidelines after they were funded.” However, the activities catalogued by BVM spanned several years, not recent months since CCHD funding. The CCHD proceeded to defund only two of the organizations spotlighted, which prompted a response from BVM spokesman Robert Gasper expressing disappointment and warning Catholics “to seriously consider whether the CCHD warrants your continued support this coming November.”
More than a dozen organizations have joined BVM in the Reform CCHD Now Coalition to boycott the donation appeal scheduled in parishes nationwide on November 22. The Catholic network EWTN hosted Gasper and Michael Hichborn of American Life League on November 13. “How are these groups getting through the cracks?” Hichborn posed. “We’re asking for complete and total reform of their grant-writing process.” Gasper added, “In the meantime, we have a coupon that people can print out” to include in place of a donation in this weekend’s collection plates.
