Thorough report on the grave and continuing problems at Catholic Relief Services August 11, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Basics, contraception, Dallas Diocese, disaster, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, paganism, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, shocking, Society.comments closed
Christine Niles has an internet radio show called Forward Boldly. She interviewed Dr. Stephen Mosher of the Population Research Institute late last week regarding the ongoing scandal of Catholic Relief Services’ involvement in distribution of contraception, abortifacients, and sterilization agents in its “relief” work in Africa and other places.
The program is an hour long but very worth listening to. While it does rehash some material from last year’s scandalous revelations regarding CRS and its far too cozy relationship with many pro-abort, contraceptive-distributing, population control agencies, there is much new ground covered. This is a really valuable contribution, I thank Christine and Dr. Mosher for their efforts:
Key takeaways, for me:
- Catholic Relief Services’ near total dependence on federal funding has resulted in a severe compromise of the organization’s Catholic character and moral behavior. CRS receives over 70% of its funding from the federal government
- The US bishops interpret both the receipt of federal funding, and the Constitution’s “no establishment” clause, to mean they cannot “discriminate” in hiring only faithful Catholics to staff organizations like CRS. Note, the bishops never fought over this interpretation, they simply yielded to it as a matter of course. So, CRS in Africa and around the world is frequently staffed with leftist atheists, evangelical protestants, pagan libertines, etc., all working to undermine Catholic Doctrine in one of the few places it is still relatively observed, Africa.
- CRS is staffed with many people from radical population control NGOs like International Planned Barrenhood and the UN Population Fund. These organizations are totally, completely steeped in the contraceptive/abortive mindset. The idea that these people once hired by a Catholic institution would suddenly give up their lifelong support for abortion or contraception at the behest of the Church is ludicrous. The data indicates they do not.
- CRS in Africa and, I’m certain, around the world, operates like a rogue agent, completely independent from local diocesan oversight. This is the claim of bishops of Madagascar.
- CRS has been directly involved in the distribution of contraceptives and dangerous abortifacients like Depo-Provera.
- CRS routinely engages in obfuscation and prevarication in attempting to escape moral culpability and oversight of its pro-population control activities
- USAID, the source of much of CRS’ funding, is one of the most virulently, dogmatic population control agencies in the world. Does anyone think he who pays the piper does not call the tune, in this case?
There are many more really devastating points raised in the show. I encourage you to listen to all of it.
The federal government is no friend of the Church, or the moral order. The federal government is increasingly an institution of radical social change, endemically hostile to the interests of the Church and right moral conduct. And yet, the bishops of the United States choose to be more and more and MORE dependent on federal funding. Right now they are getting deeply embroiled in this immigration fiasco/”crisis,” receiving federal funding to provide some kind of help, but note the timing: the federal government just imposed a regulation saying even private contractors, like churches, who receive federal funding, cannot discriminate on the basis of “sexual orientation.” The Church in this country has already been badly compromised over the issue of federal funding for contraception and abortion and the willingness of at least some Church organs to provide those services, now the Church is faced with endorsing sodomy in order to keep Uncle Sam’s gravy train rolling. OK, perhaps not “faced,” quite yet, but soon, and inevitably.
As the threats against the rights of the Church from the government mount, as the undermining of the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ advances,it is well past time to end this dependence on federal funding. It will only be used more and more as a club to attempt to beat the Church into sexular pagan submission.
There is also very good content featuring Michael Hitchborn from American Life League, which I shouldn’t neglect to mention. When I hear him describe how often the bishop’s seem utterly surprised to find out what is going on at their own agencies, agencies they supposedly spend most of their time overseeing (which is why bishops are supposed to be so rarely available within their own dioceses, because they are always off performing USCCB-level tasks), I have to laugh. Either the bishops are saying they have no control over their bureaucracy, in which case, nice management skills there, or the exasperation at the continued revelation of these ongoing scandals and the highly problematic nature of all these bureaucracies is just an effort at cover-up and blame-shifting. Which one would like to think would be beneath the nature of a prelate in Christ’s Holy Church, but I don’t think we can make that assumption, given the course of the entire abuse scandal.
I guess a good question is, how, and when, did the episcopate in this country (and so many others) go so totally off the rails. And why?
Catholic Relief Services gave $64 million to pro-abort, pro-contracept groups? September 19, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Abortion, Basics, contraception, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, Society.comments closed
That’s a healthy chunk of change. But most of it comes from the federal government, who in turn borrows the money from China, so maybe the Chicoms should get really upset about this? Why do I suspect the USCCB would be a lot more responsive to some threat of action from the Chinese communist government than they are from the faithful in the pews?
Kidding aside, this is ridiculous:
CRS continues to issue statements that it is being unfairly “attacked” regarding the groups it funds. A comprehensive investigative report on Catholic Relief Services grants and short video released by American Life League finds a lot of fire where CRS claims there is not even smoke.
The report documents that CRS gave $64.7 million — 86 percent of the total $75 million in domestic grants — to groups that actively subvert Catholic moral teaching as part of their ongoing work. The report lists each grantee, the funds it received from CRS, and the specific activities that make the groups unsavory partners for any Catholic agency.
The full report is here. It should really be read, because it goes to great depth demonstrating how the grantees listed do indeed embrace numerous beliefs and actions directly counter to the Catholic Faith. Once again, an arm of the USCCB is found to be little but a front for progressive causes of the worst kind, and the response of the bishops is simply to shoot the messenger. How dare the faithful demand Catholic organizations uphold Catholic beliefs?! This is how the revolution works, my friends.
Catholic Relief Services directly complicit in grave evil July 25, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, disconcerting, episcopate, General Catholic, horror.comments closed
Mind-blowing, in an utterly unsurprising way. CRS is distributing contraception and abortifacients by the bucketful.
An on-the-ground investigation in Madagascar has found that the U.S. Bishops’ relief agency is distributing contraceptives and abortifacients in the African country as part of a cross-country program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.The news comes as CRS scrambles to affirm its commitment to upholding Catholic teaching after LifeSiteNews revealed they had given over $13 million to the pro-abortion CARE in 2012, and are in the midst of giving a $2.7 million grant to the leading abortion-marketing firm Population Services International.The Population Research Institute issued the first of a series of reports this afternoon after they sent an investigator to Madagascar for a month to interview officials and witness the Catholic agency’s work first-hand.
——End Quote——
Incredible. If these alllegations are true, CRS will have definitively crossed the line into material participation in grave sin. Anyone funding them knowlingly would also cooperatwe with sin, in my opinion.
CRS gets $800 million a year of our money via the diabolical USAID. All it cost them was their soul.
Catholic Relief Services receives 2/3 of funding from radical pro-abort government agency July 22, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Abortion, Basics, contraception, Dallas Diocese, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, Society.comments closed
There are a number of interesting reactions to last week’s news (which I am unable to link, due to ongoing blog problems) that Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is funding a pro-abort group to the tune of $2.8 million a year. But buried in these reactions below (see here: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/heads-should-roll-pro-life-leaders-react-to-u.s.-bishops-agencys-funding-of) is a factoid that is stunning. Two-thirds of CRS’ funding comes from one federal agency (just as Catholic Charities receives well over 90% from the Feds, and the Feds do not give our money away cheaply) – the US Agency for International Development. Begun with good intentions, USAID fell victim to the sexular pagan agenda over 40 years ago, and began using the carrot of US aid in trying to force numerous countries to adopt the sexular pagan agenda of sexual libertinism, contraception, abortion, and over-arching “population control.” As Steve Mosher of the Population Research Institute (a great group!) notes, it is impossible for CRS to have been funded by USAID for decades, and not to share that agency’s misanthropic, amoral agenda:
Pro-life leaders are expressing outrage after LifeSiteNews.com revealed Thursday that the U.S. Bishops’ foreign relief agency is funding a leading abortion-marketing firm.
Catholic Relief Services is distributing a two-year $2.7 million grant to Population Services International (PSI), which networks and trains local providers throughout the developing world to offer “safe abortion.”
“Somebody has to get fired over this,” said Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). “We fight groups like PSI all over the world and now we find our own church funds them. It’s disgusting and for one I am bone-weary of these types of revelations. Heads should roll.”
Fr. Shenan Boquet, president of Human Life International, said he finds it “incomprehensible” that an organization like PSI was deemed worthy of Catholic funds.
PSI’s “primary mission has always been to promote contraception, abortifacient drugs, condoms, and even surgical abortion,” he said. “Like many other population control groups in the mid-1990s, they started to rebrand their mission as being about ‘health’, using more positive language and adding malaria-prevention programs to their portfolio. But this should not confuse anyone as to their purpose.”
Judie Brown, president of American Life League, said the news was “not surprising.” “Catholic Relief Services has historically been advocates, although not publicly – behind the scenes – advocates of population control in the Third World,” she charged.
Brown’s point was echoed by Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, who said CRS implicates itself in population control by the very fact that it receives over two thirds of its funding from USAID.
“CRS knows very well what the principal purpose of USAID is. And it tries to, in various ways, to massage that purpose, and avoid being implicated in the purpose of population control,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, they know who’s paying their salaries, and that’s why the money goes to CARE, that’s why the money goes to PSI, that’s why the money goes back and forth to other population control agencies, because that’s what their masters in the federal government demand of them.”
“This is not an agency of the institutional Catholic Church. This is a separate aid agency, which, because it receives two thirds of its funding from the U.S. government, is Catholic in name only,” he added. “No man can serve two masters.”
There is always a price to pay for federal funding. With both CRS and Catholic Charities, that price is at least tacit – and I think it goes much further than that – acceptance of the socialist, sexularist pagan agenda. CCHD is just a more obvious example. But drilling down into how monies are doled out at all these charities reveal massive problems!
What a tangled web! The Feds fund CRS, which funds CARE and other groups, which back-feed money to CRS, and the wheel goes round and round with revolving staff positions filled by all the same kinds of people. Yesterday’s radical ACORN activist like Ralph McCloud is today’s head of CCHD and tomorrow’s head of International Planned Barrenhood. As long as the “little people” bible-humping in the pew don’t pay much attention, the sexular agenda continues to advance and these NGO activists get very, very well paid. And the Church becomes a little smaller, and increasingly just another NGO, something both the current and former Popes have warned against.
The question is, what are you going to do about it? As Judie Brown notes later in the piece linked above, CRS, like CCHD, needs to be abolished and a new international relief agency – not dependent on government funding with all its attendant requirements to be utterly obiescent to the sexular pagan agenda – stood up in its place.
Will you give money to CRS, ever again? Would you, very charitably and with great respect, send a note to your local ordinary stressing the numerous problems with CRS and your inability, in conscience, to support them ever again?
Catholic Relief Services gives another $2.8 million to a pro-abort group July 19, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Abortion, Basics, contraception, Dallas Diocese, disaster, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, scandals, secularism, shocking.comments closed
This is on top of the$14 million they gave last year to pro-abort and contraception-distributing groups. Did you give to Catholic Relief Services (CRS) last year? Are you satisfied regarding how they are spending your money? Well, this year, they gave almost $3 million to one of the most noxious pro-abort and contraception distributing groups in the world, a group founded by a porn kingpin. And then, once again, tried to pretend that it didn’t matter:
Catholic Relief Services is in the midst of distributing a projected $2.789 million grant to one of the leading voices in the international abortion movement.
The U.S. Bishops’ foreign relief agency is distributing the funds to Population Services International, a $670 million organization that markets abortion drugs in the developing world.
When questioned about the grant, CRS initially claimed PSI had merely sold them mosquito nets to combat malaria, but when presented with more information, the Catholic agency acknowledged that the abortion giant took a decidedly more active role.
News of the grant has Catholic pro-life leaders raising concern that the funds, though ostensibly for a good project, are merely empowering PSI to fulfill its founding mission of population control.
“Anything you do to empower [this organization], anything you do to help it, anything you do by way of funding it, for whatever stated purpose, is strengthening an organization that is just absolutely diametrically opposed to the Catholic Church and its teachings,” said Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute. “And to pretend otherwise is not just naïve, it is duplicitous.”
The article goes on at great length regarding the donation, the pro-abort group, and what LifeSiteNews has found.
CRS is trying to claim that the money they gave was for worthy causes. But even the bishops themselves – the USCCB collectively, and the bishops individually, readily agree that money is fungible. That is, money supposedly given for one cause can be used for another, or can cover expenses for a pro-abort group in a non abortion area, freeing up other funds for abortion. The USCCB has always argued this as a reason for opposition to government funding of Planned Barrenhood. Planned Barrenhood claims they don’t use the funds to pay for abortions, but as the USCCB and it’s pro-life representatives have pointed out for years, that money PB gets from the feds for imaginary mammograms can easily be diverted to abortions. And yet, today, an arm of the USCCB is using Planned Barrenhood’s very argument in order to justify it’s own support for a pro-abort group.
Our Blessed Lord counseled, if I may paraphrase, “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” But I do not think this is quite what he had in mind.
What a catastrophe. I think the scandals at Catholic Relief Services, like the CCHD, have now risen to the point that faithful Catholics cannot, in conscience and on pain of sin, donate to them anymore. That is strictly my opinion. But I absolutely could not do so.
Catholic Relief Services gave $14 million to pro-abort, contraceptive-distributing group in 2012 July 15, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Abortion, asshatery, Basics, contraception, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, scandals, sexual depravity, sickness, Society.comments closed
I have long said that I strongly oppose donations to Catholic Relief Services, CCHD, and Catholic Charities because those organizations are wrongly oriented and frequently fund groups or activities antithetical to Catholic belief and practice. I am beginning to think that donating to these groups, amazingly, as they are formal arms of the national US bishop’s conference, the USCCB, may rise to the level of material cooperation with sin, as the scandals these agencies are embroiled in are so constant, and so grave, that I fear no Catholic in good conscience can support them.
Whether that be the case or not, the fact remains, Catholic Relief Services, the USCCB’s official overseas charity, gave over $14 million to pro-abort, contraception-distributing groups last year:
As the U.S. Bishops’ development agency was taking heat last summer for handing out over $5 million to the abortion-supporting group CARE, they were in the midst of giving a total of $13.8 million in grants to the same pro-abortion group during 2012, according to its recently-publishedIRS filings.
While CARE claims it “does not fund, support or perform abortions,” in 2009 its president and CEO, Helene Gayle, appeared before a Senate committee to urge the funding of abortions abroad by overturning the Mexico City Policy. CARE also heavily distributes contraceptives, including the abortifacient “emergency contraception,” as part of its development efforts. Moreover, it partners with the illegal–abortionpractitioner Marie Stopes International (page 4).
Susan Yoshihara of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) told LifeSiteNews last year that Gayle “is an avid advocate for an international human right to abortion-on-demand.”
Since LifeSiteNews’ coverage of CARE last summer, CARE issued a commitment at the Gates Foundation’s London Summit on Family Planning in which they pledged to put “reproductive rights” at the center of their work in the area of maternal health and to make “family planning” a priority in emergency services. Of the $13.8 million CRS gave to CARE in 2012, nearly $9 million was dedicated to “emergency services.” [So, CARE is now even more militantly more pro-abort, and the USCCB is helping to fund a very healthy chuck of their efforts. I wonder what crisis pregnancy centers could do with $9 million? Which dioceses fund crisis pregnancy centers? Dallas sure as heck doesn’t.]
Catholic pro-life leaders decried the news, saying it’s a scandal that a Church agency would support a group working against the Church’s efforts to promote a culture of life.
“Our pro-life educational and advocacy work is severely hampered, to the detriment of untold numbers of our brothers and sisters in the developing world, when groups like CARE can say that they enjoy a good working relationship with the Catholic Church,” said Fr. Shenan Boquet, president of Human Life International. He said this is the case “even if behind the scenes one finds that no Catholic money goes directly to their anti-life projects.”
“The scandal is that it appears to some that the Church supports CARE’s entire program,” he added.
Judie Brown, president of American Life League, said 2012 appears to be CRS’ worst year yet for funding of immoral groups.
“CRS is bringing a scandal on the Church. They need to stop calling themselves Catholic because what they’re doing is in direct contradiction to the moral teachings of the Church,” she said. “And I finally want to encourage anybody who has ever given a thin dime to Catholic Relief Services to ask for a refund and never give them another penny.” [I agree with all that. Most vehemently.]
And some interesting questions from Mrs. Brown:
They don’t want birth control marketing among Catholics. So why isn’t CRS going to those bishops? Why aren’t they giving money to those dioceses in Third World instead of giving them to CARE?
Yes, why? Because those dioceses don’t employ the left-leaning friends of CRS staffers, friends who might hire them for a lucrative position at CARE or some other NGO in a few years, or whom a CRS staffer could hire back one day? It’s a revolving door at these government-funded charities. Today’s director of population control at UNICEF is tomorrow’s senior level manager at CRS. It’s amazing the little empires these people carve out for themselves, all relentlessly advancing the sexular pagan agenda behind the bishop’s backs. And the poor, hapless bishops have to defend it in order not to look ridiculous. The massive lay bureaucracies created after Vatican II are almost totally beyond the bishop’s control. These bureaucracies have their own agendas, and pursue those agendas relentlessly.
So, you can either choose to contribute to that agenda, or not.
PS – I’m loading you up on posts today because I’m going to be out again on Thurs and Fri.
Catholic Relief Services confirms it is funding two more pro-abort groups February 21, 2013
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, contraception, Dallas Diocese, disaster, error, General Catholic, horror, scandals, secularism, sickness, Society.comments closed
No debate this time, even Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has confirmed they are funding these Mexican pro-abort groups, but CRS is making the rather amazing claim that just because these groups have called for more liberal abortion lawas in Mexico, that doesn’t make them pro-abort:
Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the U.S. bishops’ international development agency, has funded at least two organizations in Mexico that LifeSiteNews has verified as opposing pro-life constitutional amendments and supporting the provision of abortion by the government.
The funding of the groups has been confirmed in an e-mail received by LifeSiteNews.com from CRS Director of Communications John Rivera.
The two pro-abortion groups that have received CRS backing in Mexico are the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center (FRAYBA), and the Center for Reflection and Action on Labor Issues (CEREAL), both of which are currently advertised as “partners” on CRS’s own website.
However, when asked by LifeSiteNews.com, Rivera refused to answer whether CRS was funding other pro-abortion organizations in Mexico, such as the “All Rights for Everyone” National Network of Civil Human Rights Organizations (TDT).
He also refused a request asking for a complete list of organizations funded or supported by CRS in Latin America and worldwide. [Now, why in the world would a Church charity funded by donations from pious souls refuse to allow those souls to know how their money is being spent?]
Rivera admitted to LifeSiteNews.com that CRS has known about the two groups’ signatures on a declaration advocating the legalization of abortion since 2009, but continued to fund them at the time, because they claimed that “they neither advocate for nor condone abortion in any way.” Rivera did not say, however, if the groups admitted promoting the legalization of abortion and its provision by the government, as well as opposing pro-life state constitutional amendments, all of which LifeSiteNews.com has documented.
There is much more at the link.
How many pro-abort or pro-contracept groups is CRS funding? It’s well over a dozen now, isn’t it? And I’m sure that is just the tip of the iceberg – as LifeSiteNews notes, CRS is now trying to hide the identies of those they fund. Such forthrightness!
As I’ve counseled for years, I would not give one dime to either Catholic Relief Services or Catholic Charities. Give to the Cardinal Kung Foundation, instead.
More bad revelations about Catholic Relief Services September 7, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, contraception, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, sadness, scandals, sickness, Society.comments closed
Isn’t it about time for an official investigation from some bishops? More documents found at CRS embracing contraception use, and more high level employees with a strong population control background. This scandal just keeps on growering.
Catholic Relief Services was caught promoting condoms in 2008 as part of its fight against HIV/AIDS, even so far as having an official policy to provide “complete and accurate” information on the prophylactics. Under the direction of now-Cardinal Timothy Dolan, they pledged a reform and explicitly backed Pope Benedict’s teaching that condoms merely exacerbate the AIDS crisis.
So why, four years later, was CRS still touting two pro-condom HIV programs in this May 2012 Youtube video? Combined, the programs have reached nearly 60,000 people, they say.
And why, in a 2010 operating manual for a community center in Vietnam, were they telling staff they should “not forget to provide information on local condom provision”?
……….<collation of all kinds of interesting data on scandal and attempts at reform going back 5 years. This includes a number of contraception distribution programs and 9 or 10 highly placed employees with strong ties to the population control movement………>
CRS’ approach to reform seems to have been the same failed strategy that has plagued the Church’s recent responses to scandal, whether it be over clergy sex abuse or Catholic development agencies: entrust the reform to the very people who caused the scandal in the first place.
Thus we would submit that if CRS has failed to fully implement the reforms they had promised back in 2008 and 2009, it’s because they failed to clean house.
They need to go back and reconsider Prof. Grisez’s important counsel: “If the appearances of betrayal with respect to condoms are verified or other serious wrongdoing is found, those responsible should be fired and replaced by capable people with a good understanding of Catholic charitable apostolate and a firm commitment to act as faithful agents of the Church.”
My recommendation stands, don’t give a dime to CRS.
M yerw
More damning evidence against Catholic Relief Services August 31, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Basics, contraception, Dallas Diocese, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, sadness, scandals, sickness, Society.comments closed
More damning evidence against Catholic Relief Services – CRS – has emerged. In the past month, it has been discovered that CRS gave $5.3 million to a charity that supports abortion and contraception, is a dues paying member of two organizations, one of which distributes contraception and the other of which is focused heavily on providing abortions in Cambodia, and has numerous top staff whose previous employment was with population control organizations.
Now comes evidence from CRS’ own documents about how CRS promotes the use of contraception like condoms for “harm prevention” and other purposes, even if the organization itself doesn’t provide the contraceptives.
So, in CRS’ own words, while it cannot distribute condoms itself, it is free to tell people about the “effectiveness” of condoms in “harm reduction” and then tell its clients where they can obtain condoms. Is this the “adherence to Catholic teaching” to which CRS is alluding when it defends the hiring of individuals from pro-abortion organizations?
Another top employee sits on the steering committee for the organization that performs abortions in Cambodia, while also working for a condom distribution enterprise.
The article finally notes that other individuals have left CRS and then directly go to work for population control groups, including those involved in the distribution of contribution. The conclusion:
Are we to believe that individuals, such as Daphyne Williams and Dr. Sok Pun simply turn off their support for condoms and abortion when they join CRS, and that employees like Steve Kraus suddenly become “pro-contraception” after they leave CRS. And why is CRS continuing to defend its support for terrible organizations like CARE, MEDiCAM, and CORE Group? This kind of dynamic speaks volumes about the culture of Catholic Relief Services and the character of its employees. So, the biggest question of all is, “Can an organization that calls itself ‘Catholic,’ but employs pro-abortion, pro-contraception non-Catholics actually live up to its name?” As the evidence continues to roll out, the answer appears to be “no.”
The answer, of course, is no. Furthermore, personnel is policy. It is laughable for CRS to claim all these stridently pro-abort and pro-contracept individuals are somehow faithfully adhering to Catholic doctrine in their CRS jobs. More likely is that they are aping the pro-contracept and pro-abort positions of the most senior leadership at CRS, possibly including clergy. Typically, organizations tend to mimic, to a degree, the personalities of their senior management. There is an even stronger tendency for organizations to reflect the beliefs of senior management. I strongly doubt these individuals named so far are the only ones that have worked against Church teaching. I would suspect there are many, many more. I would suspect such views are rampant at CRS, and tend to dominate the entire organization. Which is why CRS was scandalized when asked if they would ever evangelize any of the souls they serve. “Of course not, never!” was the response.
That’s why I continue to tell people not to support any USCCB-affiliated charity. No to Catholic Charities, CRS, CCHD, Catholic Climate Covenant, all of ’em. All these organizations are filled with the kind of people who work at NGOs, and the vast majority of those types have little regard for Catholic belief, especially those dealing with sexuality.
Scandals continue at Catholic Relief Services – members of contraception group August 3, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, Basics, contraception, episcopate, error, foolishness, General Catholic, sadness, scandals.comments closed
This is shaping up to be CCHD Mark II. I’m mostly copying and pasting, because I’ve had a bad couple of days (except for the show last night, which was TeH AwEsoMe!)
Catholic Relief Services is a dues-paying member of the CORE Group. In addition to that, CRS’s senior technical advisor in nutrition, Mary Hennigan, is on the board of the CORE Group and CRS’s Global Director of Health and HIV, Dr. Shannon Senfeld co-chairs the CORE Group’s “working group” on HIV/AIDS.
Why is this a problem? Because the CORE Group itself heavily promotes birth control, which means that Catholic donations to CRS went to pay for the membership in this organization (this IS fungible).
Sadly, there’s more.
According to the CORE Group’s description of its board of directors,
The CORE Group Board of Directors is the governing body of the organization and is dedicated to advancing CORE Group’s mission, values, strategies, goals, priorities, and policies.
As a member of the “governing body” of CORE Group, CRS’s senior technical advisor in nutrition would be a part of the decision-making for the organization, including philosophies, policies, and projects. And one of those projects is a working group on “Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health,” which actively promotes contraception.
In fact, nearly 50% of CORE Groups budget for fiscal year 2011 went toward “family planning” and “Maternal and Child Health,” (MCH) and its MCH programs are specifically designed to be integrated with “family planning.”
It’s bad enough that CRS is paying its own money into an organization that so heavily promotes birth control to poor people in third world countries, and with board member oversight of the organization, CRS cannot claim ignorance.
But the saddest and most shocking aspect of this whole thing is found in a single document on the CORE Group’s website. CORE Group produced a document titled, “Improving Access To and Use of Quality: Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) Services,” through its HIV/AIDS working group, which is co-chaired by CRS’s Global Director of Health and HIV.
So, will CRS try to fight their way out of this one? The answer is yes. CRS continues to acknowledge no problem in belonging to pro-contracept groups or even funding them, whether in large or small amounts. They continue to claim that working with these organizations which hold views directly counter to what the Church believes is somehow absolutely necessary for them to perform their mission. They claim they present the faithful Catholic view within these pro-contracept groups to try to change them from within.
I’m going to throw the BS flag on that. I know how a lot of these groups work, and one thing they don’t brook is dissent. If you’re not on the contraception bandwagon, you’re not there. The most you could do is silently give your money, but CRS has done more than that – they’ve been active players.
We don’t know great details of the individuals involved, but we do know that a large percentage of Catholics reject Church Doctrine on contraception. We also know that an overwhelming percentage of “progressive” Catholics do the same. NGOs and charities like CRS tend to be populated by progressive types. Isn’t it more likely that they are happily going along with the pro-contracept mentality and donating/belonging to pro-contracept groups, than they are to be fighting lonely, uphill battles against their secular humanist confreres?
Which story would you believe?
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