EWTN's Arroyo Hosts Reform CCHD Reps Who Reveal Shocking Evidence Against USCCB Anti-Poverty Arm

[Chipper]

You don’t really believe this do you?

All you have to do is go the CCHD website, look up the organizations their funding, then go to their websites. Their websites tell you what they are funding. Abortion, Homosexual Agenda’s, Marxism.

It’s right there in front of the whole world.

This is so outrageous it is ridiculous.

My money? No way Josey, is it going to CCHD.

 

[Tigg]

In the past it has only been the outrage of the faithful and the exposure to bad press that has forced the CCHD to stop funding the most immoral of these political groups. They assured us after ACORN our money was, once again, safe with them and would “help the poor.” This time they need to be sent an uncompromising message from every faithful Catholic - NO MORE!

It’s past time for our bishops to exit politics, but I wonder if it isn’t too late. Are we seeing a repeat of what happened in Latin America 40 years ago? Remember this, anyone?

Pope John Paul II has made it bluntly clear that he wants all priests to get out of politics.

time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922601,00.html#ixzz0XPNQItFD

 

[redrosetea]

I think they should refocus this campaign to serve the community from within the church

there are plenty of Catholic ministries that need money, and they are trying to live the church directs, faithful to scripture and the magesterium

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think they should refocus this campaign to serve the community from within the church

there are plenty of Catholic ministries that need money, and they are trying to live the church directs, faithful to scripture and the magesterium

I could not possibly agree more.

 

[redrosetea]

I am afraid it is worse than we previously thought…listen to the first video…there are some links to George Soros

I don’t understand how this went undetected……I feel sick, it goes beyond being angry

realcatholictv.net/defundcchd/

 

[fultonfish]

A lot of radical socialist groups started up in the late 1960’s. They masquerade as legitimate Church groups. There is even a RADICAL Catholic newspaper that has the same identical front page head as a conservative Catholic newspaper. And the name of it is only a few letters different.

 

[harveyc]

I am afraid it is worse than we previously thought…listen to the first video…there are some links to George Soros

I don’t understand how this went undetected……I feel sick, it goes beyond being angry

realcatholictv.net/defundcchd/

I don’t know if it’s appropriate to donate to CCHD or not (I have some doubts), but I thought the video you referenced was poorly done. The main new things which was brought up was that someone who previously worked for CCHD works for a Soros organization now. There was no mention what position that person held, how long ago it was, or why they left. As far as I know, they were fired for conflicting views. The second thing was that CCHD funds Gamaliel which Soros also funds, but there is no mention of what Gamaliel does, especially what is contrary to Catholic principles. While Soros is evil, there are probably some things he does which are okay. Oh yeah, Obama once worked for Gamaliel. Why didn’t they address what Gamaliel does??? A lot of the video is rehashing of old things and it did a very poor job of presenting the new information, especially since it was promoted as “things are getting even worse”.

I did listen to the second hour of the Drew Mariani show the other day. It’s located at relevantradio.streamguys.us/Asx%20Files/DM%20Archive/DM20091119b.asx and starts about about 13:30 and drags on pretty slowly. I got the feeling Drew was giving CCHD a “free pass”. On the other hand, the current director has been there for 1.5 years and he does seem to be addressing problems and says the institutions which have been pointed out as problems are no longer being funded. He did say that they do their best to screen applicants and that local bishops are required to approve them, but that some things have obviously slipped through. He made a comment that didn’t sound very convincing, that he believed these organizations may have been okay when approved by changed later on. Drew did ask if a donor could stipulate specifically what their funds could be used for and he did say that they would find a way to do that.

I’m not convinced that it’s a terrible thing to donate to CCHD right now but I’m also not convinced that it’s a great thing either. Since I’m “undecided” and sponsoring children in Nicarauga (another story in itself, a good one), I don’t think we’ll be contributing.

 

[harveyc]

You don’t really believe this do you?

All you have to do is go the CCHD website, look up the organizations their funding, then go to their websites. Their websites tell you what they are funding. Abortion, Homosexual Agenda’s, Marxism.

It’s right there in front of the whole world.

This is so outrageous it is ridiculous.

My money? No way Josey, is it going to CCHD.

I’ve looked at usccb.org/cchd/grants/2009CCHDGrantees.pdf and don’t see anything obviously wrong. Are there any there which you have looked at and have problems with? I’ve only heard of complaints about organizations previously funded by CCHD and the poor screening process.

 

[JReducation]

I’m wondering if Raymond Arroyo’s report has not been taken too far, not the fault of Mr. Arroyo. It’s true that the CCHD gave funds to organizations that were in conflict with Church teaching. It seems that these donations have stopped. I guess the problem is that some people are thinking that the CCHD is still giving to these organizations. But the impression that I’m getting from the Bishops’ conference is when they have discovered these weaknesses, they are addressed. If that’s the case, then we have to accept that there in no perfect guarrantee that any organization to which we donate will use the funds as we hope. There are going to be weaknesses. The important thing is to correct them.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[redrosetea]

From Catholic Culture

This is the weekend of the special collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Skepticism about the CCHD’s bait-and-switch rhetoric has been expressed on this site often (go here, or here, or here, or here), on the grounds that the public appeal is aimed at the relief of poverty, while the funds collected are aimed at overcoming poverty: political manipulation of the state purse.

Bishop Roger Morin finds the criticisms of the CCHD “outrageous.” Well, judge for yourself. A complete list of the 2009 grantees can be found here. Go ahead, do a search for the word “Catholic” and see what you come up with. If you have more time, read the brief prospectus given for each grantee and ask if it corresponds to the notion of aiding the poor by which the Church appealed to your generosity and in response to which your compassion was engaged.

If your heart is warmed by the CCHD grantees, great: go for it! If not, there are alternatives.

A group calling itself Reform CCHD Now provides a printable coupon that you can put into the collection basket in place of CCHD donation. On the coupon it explains, “This year, I will give the money I would have given to the CCHD to another organization which is fully in agreement with Church teaching on social justice and family and life issues.” The point is that the coupon in the basket and (just as important) the redirected donation might help send a message to the right folks.

But where to target the redirected money? Among many worthy recipients, let me single out Mother Teresa’s sisters, the Missionaries of Charity. Consider these factors:

The money will go for the relief of the poorest of the poor.
The “overhead” is as low as low can go.
Funds will not be diverted toward feminist consciousness-raising workshops or accessories for business apparel.
The sisters are exuberantly Catholic; those they feed, bathe, comfort and clothe may be of any faith or none.
Their U.S. address for donation:

Treasurer
Missionaries of Charity
335 E. 145th Street
Bronx, NY 10451

A final point: donors to the Missionaries of Charity get a brief written acknowledgment, but no further solicitation whatsoever. Your call.

catholicculture.org/commentary/otr.cfm?id=5143

 

[Holly3278]

This has shaken my faith considerably. Lord, have mercy!

 

[JReducation]

This has shaken my faith considerably. Lord, have mercy!

]We must be very careful and attentive to our spiritual lives. Sometimes, in our effort to be faithful to the Church’s teachings we can become so attached to the teaching and to the actions that we forget the purpose of the teachings and the actions. The purpose is always the perfection of charity. Perfect charity must extend to all people, even those who make mistakes. We do not endorse mistakes and we certainly do not encourage them. But love is, as Christ love, requires that we speak to sinners as Christ spoke to the woman at the well and to the woman caught in adultery. There is a deep sense of forgiveness in Christ’s words.

If we observe, the facts are that we he does not know if they are going to sin again. The scriptures don’t tell us either. Christ lives in the present moment, as Brother Lawrence once wrote in his wonderful spiritual treatise. We too have to learn to live in the present moment. It is not always necessary to try to anticipate where men and God are going. Sometimes it’s pretty obvious. We don’t have to do any guessing. At other times, it’s not so obvious.

It is at these times when it is not obvious that we place ourselves in God’s hand and admit that we are sinful. Notice the WE, not they. When we can say this with a degree of honesty and humility it is much easier to trust that God will help all of us to correct our errors. The Son of God was sent to bring home the stray sons of Israel, not the saints.

Therefore, in our effort to be faithful to the Church, let us remember that our real effort is to practice perfect charity. Perfect charity is impossible without perfect obedience to the will of God. It is God’s will that we acknowledge our faults and that we correct them. It is not God’s will that we dwell on the faults, be they our own or those of others. To dwell on faults is to give room to a cancer that will eat away at our faith.

In this case, someone made mistakes. The bishops have said that they are addressing the mistakes. Those are all of the facts that we have at hand. Based on those facts, we have to make the best decision for us. But let us not dwell on suspicion and mistrust. Suspicion and mistrust are certainly not part of the higher good. The Christian vocation is about choosing the higher good, not the painful path of mistrust and judgment. In this case, the higher good is to be generous with our donations where ever we feel they may do the most good. That may be through the CCHD or through some other Catholic ministry. In the end, the perfection of charity is to give until it hurts for the good of those who have less than we do. As St. James says, “I will show you my works.” Notice that he puts it in the first person. Good works are not about others. They are about me and my choices. We must correct faults, but in the end, we preserve and protect our inner life by making the choice that best leads us to the perfection of charity. Perfect charity does not include suspicion and judgment. It includes forgiveness and encouragement to do the right thing as Jesus exemplified for us.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[ljubim]

We definitely didn’t give a dime… but I will never forget the horrible sadness having to pass that basket down to more people. Lord have mercy on us all!!

 

[Stylite]

American Life League has an excellent compilation of the troubling CCHD grantees that have not yet been defunded: www.all.org/cchd

Also, the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry posted a devastating series of rebuttals to the CCHD response:

bellarmineveritasministry.org/2009/11/16/response-to-cchds-for-the-record-part-1/

and: bellarmineveritasministry.org/2009/11/19/approval-from-the-archdiocese-of-los-angeles/

What has been nice is that the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry has been quite charitable throughout this mess, and seems to be in negotiations with the CCHD at the moment. Hopefully something good will come out of all this.

 

[JimG]

American Life League has an excellent compilation of the troubling CCHD grantees that have not yet been defunded: www.all.org/cchd

Also, the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry posted a devastating series of rebuttals to the CCHD response:

bellarmineveritasministry.org/2009/11/16/response-to-cchds-for-the-record-part-1/

and: bellarmineveritasministry.org/2009/11/19/approval-from-the-archdiocese-of-los-angeles/

What has been nice is that the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry has been quite charitable throughout this mess, and seems to be in negotiations with the CCHD at the moment. Hopefully something good will come out of all this.

The ALL compilation is quite instructive; it links to the USCCB list of grantees as well. Skimming through the USCCB list of grantees and descriptions, I did a word search for “empower” and got 24 hits. Is that evil? No, but it means that the grantees are often more political than charitable in nature, usually associated with a “progressive” social agenda.

 

[fultonfish]

CCHD doesn’t make ANY contributions or donations.

It is the STAFF of the CCHD that makes the contributions/donations and that does all the damage.

So we need to identify the specific individuals and remove them and never n-e-v-e-r give them any position of trust ever again.

 

[grandfather]

Apart from the specifics of what is going on there seems to be a pattern. Faithful Catholics have been complaining for a long time about CHHD. The problems have been there for a long time. Nothing was done. It was ignored, swept under the rug, until it finally went public. It is impossible to not know what the organzations receiving funding were doing. That was public knowledge. People were complaining. The bishops did nothing.

Sounds familiar. It is the same way they handled the sex scandals for decades. Did they learn anything?

Now they are trying to rebuild trust in their leadership after the sex scandals and have hired pr firms to help. Maybe there is an underlying problem in the system, a systemic problem in the American hierarchy.

We have many faithful Catholic organizations helping the poor. Why would the bishops organize this effort to give money to secular organizations that are not related to the Church, and give nothing to the poor, but instead are political activists whose work is inimical to the Catohlic faith under the guise of helping the poor? It is a deception at its very core.

They asked for money for the poor and gave it to politcal activists to campaign for vile causes. Our bishops did this. It was done under their name. It did not gradually go bad with a few bad people sneaking in under the radar and taking over. It has been this way from the beginning.

 

[Frjcarney]

I am a pastor of a parish. I refuse to take the CCHD collection because I don’t trust the distribution of funds. I direct that our envelope supplier not include a CCHD envelope.

Many other pastors do the same.

It’s a matter of conscience for me.

 

[grandfather]

I am a pastor of a parish. I refuse to take the CCHD collection because I don’t trust the distribution of funds. I direct that our envelope supplier not include a CCHD envelope.

Many other pastors do the same.

It’s a matter of conscience for me.

Thank you!

 

[Tigg]

I am a pastor of a parish. I refuse to take the CCHD collection because I don’t trust the distribution of funds. I direct that our envelope supplier not include a CCHD envelope.

Many other pastors do the same.

It’s a matter of conscience for me.

Thank you for your courage, Father!

Apart from the specifics of what is going on there seems to be a pattern. Faithful Catholics have been complaining for a long time about CHHD. The problems have been there for a long time. Nothing was done. It was ignored, swept under the rug, until it finally went public. It is impossible to not know what the organzations receiving funding were doing. That was public knowledge. People were complaining. The bishops did nothing.

Sounds familiar. It is the same way they handled the sex scandals for decades. Did they learn anything?

Now they are trying to rebuild trust in their leadership after the sex scandals and have hired pr firms to help. Maybe there is an underlying problem in the system, a systemic problem in the American hierarchy.

We have many faithful Catholic organizations helping the poor. Why would the bishops organize this effort to give money to secular organizations that are not related to the Church, and give nothing to the poor, but instead are political activists whose work is inimical to the Catohlic faith under the guise of helping the poor? **It is a deception at its very core. **

They asked for money for the poor and gave it to politcal activists to campaign for vile causes. Our bishops did this. It was done under their name. It did not gradually go bad with a few bad people sneaking in under the radar and taking over. It has been this way from the beginning.

I agree with your sentiments. Another thing troubling me is that some of these organizations have similar sounding names but appear to be inter-connected making it extremely difficult to recognize them. I am always suspicious of the groups that seem to have “justice or peace” in their title.

catholicactionuk.blogspot.com/2009/05/justice-and-peace-dissident-catholic.html

Now you may not be able to identify some of the names in the above link with the grantees list because the groups starting up in a different area may have a slightly different name. But they all seem to have the same agenda.

catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=69&CFID=16069941&CFTOKEN=79204413

One recent group receiving funding (I think in the ’08 and ’09 campaign was The Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center. This is a Seattle-based leftist Catholic group very actively speaking out against the hierarchical Church and the papacy. The Catholic sisters in this group have given seminars promoting ordination for women, radical feminism, radical environmentalism and a disregard for Church tradition.

Another is The Gamaliel Network. This group endorses scriptural relativism among other unsavory things, and not only receives funds from the CCHD, but also George Soros.

discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7004

The money these political peace and social justice groups receive is astounding. Many have become global. I’ve said this before, but I think we are seeing a resurgence of the 1960’s style politics which call for revolutionary tactics to overthrow the middle class.

This has shaken my faith considerably. Lord, have mercy!

I am so sorry – I’ve been disturbed in my spirit as well, but take heart. Other times during church history we have seen similar movements, but the Church is indefectible. Our job is to study our faith and beware of the inconsistencies we might see and hear that deviate from the truth as taught by the magisterium over the ages.