Catholic Campaign for Human Development

One thing that has always amazed me most about Leftist Catholics is their shamelessness. Be it Mahoney in California, Weakland in Milwaukee, Marini in Rome, McBrien at Notre Dame, or just your average collarless/golf shirt cleric or habitless/pant suit nun who heads up your diocesan Catholic Campaign for Human Development office, they all unfailingly defend the defenseless while at the same time cast aspersions against actual faithful Catholics who speak up against their malfeasance, or in the case of CCHD, the malfeasance of their beloved ideological organization. And some of them, such as Weakland, Mahoney, and the CCHD, are so shameless that even in the face of great scandal they remain obstinate and self righteous towards justifiably angry Catholics.

We all know that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in the last ten years has been involved with very suspect, if not downright anti-Catholic, organizations such as ACORN. The CCHD gave no less than 7.5 million dollars to ACORN alone. And recently, as reported by California Catholic Daily, ACORN is not the only anti-Catholic organization the CCHD does business with. See link to full story here: http://calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=7bf1e11f-11a3-4d75-8cea-45be79bdb04e

But to the point, the reason I began this post was to share a couple emails that were sent to my inbox. The first email I received was from the Diocese of Raleigh CCHD office and I post it in full so you can see the general attitude of our local CCHD office. I have redacted the authors name, but the full text of the email is as follows:

Dear Respect Life Leaders of the Diocese,

I am sorry to see that an article about ACORN and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development is being circulated in the diocese. This kind of rhetoric only continues to be divisive among people. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has no links to ACORN. The US Catholic Bishops have dealt with this. Regardless of what people think about ACORN, CCHD is not funding the organization. CCHD continues to monitor every grant. The Church’s CCHD campaign is directed at the poor and vulnerable in our country just as Bishop Burbidge named in his homily. Sadly, as with some organizations, ACORN fell astray in areas. It seems at times there are some people who seem to know more than the US Catholic Bishops and continue to look at life with constant negative attitudes. Our Bishop and all the Bishops continue to ask parishioners to support the Catholic Campaign for Human Development each November through a collection. This money is used by the Bishops to work to eradicate poverty in this country. Our collection is November 15. It is one of 10 official collections in the diocese. Some people continue to use the ACORN argument in their opposition to CCHD. This is sad because so much good is being accomplished in our diocese and all dioceses across the country through CCHD funds. An example of one o f these grants is a funding of the St. Ann Parish Neighborhood Youth Center in Fayetteville working with low-income young people, another is a project in Raleigh working with the homeless and so on. This October 29 Bishop Burbidge will distribute CCHD checks to 10 local organizations. You are welcome to come to the dinner and hear about the good these groups are doing in the diocese. The dinner is open to all at 6:30 pm at St. Michael’s Parish Center, Cary. Just RSVP to me. If you have read the article my question is who is Bellarmine Veritatis Ministry? Are they a voice of the US Catholic Bishops?Our Respect Life and CCHD information comes to me from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Vatican and I send it on to you. Let us pray for each other that we are, indeed, instruments of the Lord.

Now I read the above email and immediately wanted to simultaneously throw up and scream at my computer screen. But then another email popped up in my inbox and what a delight it was to read. Again, I have redacted this lovely persons name so as to respect their privacy. The excellent response to the Raleigh CCHD was as follows:

Dear XXXXX,

You are incorrect, the CCHD has funded ACORN in the past, the act of funding ties CCHD to this organization. The CCHD has also funded organizations that promote, abortion, same sex marriage and contraception. This is not an effort to be divisive, it is a question of accountability. When people donate money to a Catholic organizations they have an expectation that the Bishops will be good stewards of their money. They have not been good stewards. There is no question that some of the initiatives funded by the CCHD have done good and helped the poor and yes, XXXXX we all want to do that. There has been a loss of trust in the CCHD because ,in it's effort to push a social justice agenda,they have chosen to overlook or not thoroughly investigate organizations that they have funded with our money. XXXXX, take a step back and I will quote your own word, "this money is used by the Bishops to work to eradicate poverty in this country." Jesus, told us we will always have the poor, our job is not to eradicate poverty in this country, ours is to pick up the cross daily and work to comfort and aid the poor through acts of corporal and spiritual works of mercy.I do believe, in an effort to" eradicate " poverty and social injustice ,CCHD has compromised it's own mission. Our work will never end, it is a cross that must be picked up daily. I see many Catholic organizations losing sight of that goal and with that, making compromises that are in direct conflict to the moral and doctrinal teaching of the Church. I appreciate all of your hard work and I know most people involved in the CCHD are motivated by a true love for the poor and want to help. There is something fundamentally wrong with the CCHD right now. We as Catholics must look at this organization carefully and we must ask questions and expect clear and objective answers. When we fund CCHD we are funding the organizations they fund. To have an open discussion of the facts about organizations that the CCHD has funded now or in the past, is not an act of divisiveness, it is an act of responsible, prudential forethought.

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My post is long enough so I will just stop here. I think the above two emails speak for themselves. Words of warning, the CCHD is still a sick organization and every Catholic should think twice about supporting this organization. And the CCHD person in the first email above is incorrect in stating that CCHD defunded ACORN three years ago. In 2007 alone, CCHD funded ACORN in excess of 1 million dollars and the funding continued into 2008 and the presidential election cycle. The CCHD very well may have assisted in electing Barack Obama president, the most anti-Catholic president in American history.