CRS... Vice President in Same-Sex Civil Marriage

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CRS Is ‘in Deliberations’ Regarding Vice President in Same-Sex Civil Marriage
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A communications official with Catholic Relief Services confirmed news reports about the marital status of Rick Estridge, its vice president of overseas finance.

A communications official with Catholic Relief Services said that the organization is aware that one of their vice presidential employees is in a same-sex civil “marriage,” and CRS is in deliberations about it. “Rick Estridge has served CRS for 16 years and currently holds the position as our vice president of overseas finance. Rick is in a same-sex civil marriage,” said CRS senior manager for communications Tom Price.
“At this point, we are in deliberations on this matter,” he told CNA April 20.
According to public records from the clerk of the circuit court for Baltimore, published by the Lepanto Institute, Rick Estridge with CRS entered into a civil same-sex “marriage” with his partner, William Gorestas, on April 4, 2013.
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The (Lepanto) institute said that Estridge had also been publicly championing same-sex “marriage” on his Facebook page, though both his LinkedIn and Facebook accounts were later disabled.
The Lepanto Institute and related groups have previously accused CRS of facilitating contraception in developing nations and advocating behavior contrary to Church teaching. The U.S. bishops have investigated and rejected these accusations on several occasions, stressing their confidence in the organization’s Catholic identity and the safeguards put in place to ensure that identity.
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**Wonder how many years they, and our bishops will have to deliberate over this? :confused:
 
Joe_Kelley said:
Wonder how many years they, and our bishops will have to deliberate over this? :confused:

CRS is just a mess right now.

There are many other very good Catholic groups who will be more than happy to accept a donation instead of CRS. A dramatic decline in funding is a very effective way of getting people back on the straight and narrow.
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I don’t care, it is not going to stop me from donating…
I’ve heard people say that the bookkeeper at my parish hasn’t been to confession in years, but is receiving the Eucharist…but I’m still donating to the parish!
 
SWolf said:
CRS is just a mess right now.

There are many other very good Catholic groups who will be more than happy to accept a donation instead of CRS. A dramatic decline in funding is a very effective way of getting people back on the straight and narrow.
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True but it feels a bit like Whack-a-mole. There are a number of us who stopped giving to the CHD due to similar scandals and some diverted those contributions to CRS. Now we start over again.
 
Neofight said:
I don’t care, it is not going to stop me from donating…
I’ve heard people say that the bookkeeper at my parish hasn’t been to confession in years, but is receiving the Eucharist…but I’m still donating to the parish!
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You summed up a big problem in Christendom in just 3 words. “I don’t care.” I am sure the homosexual’s coworkers knew he was a practicing homo, and knew about his psuedo-spouse, but they “didn’t care”. This is how evil creeps into the church. Those at the gate “don’t care”.
 
Neofight said:
I don’t care, it is not going to stop me from donating…
I’ve heard people say that the bookkeeper at my parish hasn’t been to confession in years, but is receiving the Eucharist…but I’m still donating to the parish!
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You summed up a big problem in Christendom in just 3 words. “I don’t care.” I am sure the homosexual’s coworkers knew he was a practicing homosexual, and knew about his psuedo-spouse, but they “didn’t care”. This is how evil creeps into the church. Those at the gate “don’t care”, and we are all essentially gatekeepers.​

 
Joe_Kelley said:
Wonder how many years they, and our bishops will have to deliberate over this? :confused: I bet the deliberations will not take too long. I wouldn’t abandon the poor and needy though based on conjecture over how they will act. This generation is such an impatient lot. I do not doubt what the outcome will be.
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SWolf said:
CRS is just a mess right now.

There are many other very good Catholic groups who will be more than happy to accept a donation instead of CRS. A dramatic decline in funding is a very effective way of getting people back on the straight and narrow.
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Red flags always seems to come up with CRS. I kept my donations domestic supporting St. Vincent de Paul and various Diocesan charities but then became aware of CNEWA and donate there when able.

cnewa.org/home.aspx?ID=26&pagetypeID=12&sitecode=HQ
 
pnewton said:
I bet the deliberations will not take too long. I wouldn’t abandon the poor and needy though based on conjecture over how they will act. This generation is such an impatient lot. I do not doubt what the outcome will be.
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CRS isn’t the only option.
 
Corki said:
True but it feels a bit like Whack-a-mole. There are a number of us who stopped giving to the CHD due to similar scandals and some diverted those contributions to CRS. Now we start over again.
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What is the alternative? No charity? There are some that think the best way to help those in need is to give directly to individuals, or small groups. I certainly admire that as a noble pursuit. Any method of helping others is to be commended. However, the “whack a mole” game will be multiplied by millions then, for those individuals and small groups are just as vulnerable to sin and sinners as are the larger group. I believe many are more vulnerable as they operate with zero oversight and accountability. There would be no one to “deliberate what should be done” in cases like this and no need to take any action, or let the situation be known.
 
Neofight said:
I don’t care, it is not going to stop me from donating…
I’ve heard people say that the bookkeeper at my parish hasn’t been to confession in years, but is receiving the Eucharist…but I’m still donating to the parish!
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It won’t stop me from donating either. CRS has an international reach that other Catholic organizations just can’t match, at least yet. It sure would be nice, though, not to have scandal after scandal pop up in the USCCB’s flagship non-profit group…
 
There are multiple sources related to Catholic Relief Services that mention ‘sacrament of marriage’ found through Google. For example on this link (crsfairtrade.org/wedding/) they mention that and link to a USSCB page which in turn has a link to ‘marriage unique for a reason’ website which seeks to, ‘promote and defend marriage as the union of one man and one woman.’ The Vice President has advocated in support of homosexual ‘marriage.’
 
gracepoole said:
It won’t stop me from donating either. CRS has an international reach that other Catholic organizations just can’t match, at least yet. It sure would be nice, though, not to have scandal after scandal pop up in the USCCB’s flagship non-profit group…
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Except they use that international reach to promote non-Catholic things over there.
 
ARSpade said:
Except they use that international reach to promote non-Catholic things over there.
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That’s an over-generalization. There is much that CRS does that does not fit within this description. And I’m loathe to cut off those in such remote locations that only groups like CRS and its affiliates can reach them.
 
pnewton said:
What is the alternative? No charity? There are some that think the best way to help those in need is to give directly to individuals, or small groups. I certainly admire that as a noble pursuit. Any method of helping others is to be commended. However, the “whack a mole” game will be multiplied by millions then, for those individuals and small groups are just as vulnerable to sin and sinners as are the larger group. I believe many are more vulnerable as they operate with zero oversight and accountability. There would be no one to “deliberate what should be done” in cases like this and no need to take any action, or let the situation be known.
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I think the alternative is to give to another charity and cut off CRS. In fact, the USCCB should be distancing themselves from the organization but I doubt it will.

And as for accountability, what accountability does CRS have? The current “deliberation” is just CRS employees deliberating about what (if anything) CRS will do and what (if anything) CRS will say. Since this is a matter of public record and not something that is “alleged”, you would think they would at least suspend the guy during their “deliberation” According to the reports, the information was made public on April 4 but CRS didn’t even start to “deliberate” until it hit the blogs, conveniently, just weeks after their latest collection drive was completed. That gives them almost a year to just sit on their hands and hope everyone forgets Self-policing is not real accountability.

To those outside of the Church, this just looks like the Church is saying “do as I say, not as I do” while asking for money with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge. .
 
ARSpade said:
Except they use that international reach to promote non-Catholic things over there.
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Some of us donate because we do not believe this to be true, but this has been debated many times. All I know is that there are good people that know a lot more than I do overseeing them to keep 'em Catholic.
 
There is another thread on CRS funding foreign programs which are not in accord with Catholic Teaching: Lepanto and PRI catch CRS running contraceptive program. We are assured that CRS is aware of the problem and is handling it. Note that “Rick Estridge has served CRS for 16 years and currently holds the position as our vice president of overseas finance. Rick is in a same-sex civil marriage,” said CRS senior manager for communications Tom Price.

See his job description: [As vice president of overseas finance, I lead the development and implementation of all overseas financial management systems, policies, processes and activities to ensure strong resource stewardship, operational efficiency, consistent financial performance, risk mitigation and exceptional financial management across all overseas operations. I also act as the lead finance representative of the agency to all donors, partners and other stakeholders related to overseas financial reporting and contract/agreement, policy and compliance matters related to overseas financial management.”

](http://forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=949267&highlight=CRS)
I doubtt we need the Bishops’ slush funds which support large bureaucracies to funnel funds to non-Catholic charities. I think it better to give directly to the ones doing the work.
 
Deus_tecum said:

You summed up a big problem in Christendom in just 3 words. “I don’t care.” I am sure the homosexual’s coworkers knew he was a practicing homosexual, and knew about his psuedo-spouse, but they “didn’t care”. This is how evil creeps into the church. Those at the gate “don’t care”, and we are all essentially gatekeepers.​

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And ignoring the greater good because of the actions of one sums up a bigger problem.

Christ did not throw his hands ups and say, “because there are bad people, I am not going to die for the good”.

🤷
 
Joe_Kelley said:
I think it better to give directly to the ones doing the work.
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Well, I guess thinking that people with no oversight is better than being under the authority of the Church is an opinion. Before I was a Catholic, many ministries I knew operated this way. Surely it is easier to keep a low profile if you are small and no one sees you. As a Catholic, I prefer to stick with those groups that stick with the Church, not just in name and not just in practice, but in name and practice.

That Lepanto Institute report has been around for a few years. It keeps getting repackaged and re-“broken”, as in breaking news. I am to the point I don not trust them as far as I can throw them.
 
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