Your Annual Reminder Not to Give a Dime to CCHD or CRS

A nice video from Taylor Marshall below, interviewing the long-laboring Michael Hitchborn of the Lepanto Institute, summarizing all the ongoing scandals with the US bishop’s so-called Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which also ties in with Catholic Relief Services (CRS).  Of course, if you’ve been reading this blog for a few years, you know I’ve covered the scandals and moral atrocities of both organizations repeatedly, and have constantly advised readers not to give to either organization.  However, I go much further than that, and advise that faithful Catholics do all they can to “hide” their money from the bishops in every respect – meaning trying to be very careful about what you donate to your parish, because parishes are taxed (“assessed”) by the dioceses, and the dioceses are taxed by the USCCB, to the extent that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was forced to kick up a quarter of a million dollars to the USCCB in one recent fiscal year alone.  All charitable organs of the USCCB and its affiliates are, at the very least, extremely dependent on government money, and as such, they drift ever leftwards in their cultural and moral outlook as time goes by, as the Left is seen at being more generous with the taxpayers dollars, and because the large majority of the bureaucrats who staff the various organs of the USCCB are leftists themselves (leaving aside the large and, under Francis, growing number of bishops who are also socially, morally, and religiously left-leaning).

In the 2nd video below, at about 18 minutes in, Michelle Malkin notes the connection between the US “episcopate’s” leftward drift (I put episcopate in quotes, because the vast majority of actions taken by the USCCB and its many subsidiary organizations are actually taken by lay staffers, with minimal if any actual episcopal oversight) and its growing dependence on government money.  Of course, the direction in which Francis is taking the Church is only accelerating this trend.

This is only part of the reason why (other reasons – rampant sodomy in their ranks that bishops refuse to police, the extremely dubious nature of national episcopal conferences with regard to the Tradition/Doctrine of the Faith, the deleterious effects of national conferences on right moral and doctrinal government by local bishops, mass-scale embezzlement and financial abuse, etc., etc.) I have long advised souls to do all they can to donate to their local Catholic parishes in ways that prevent their money from being assessed by the bishops and used for immoral purposes.  Once souls become aware of the constant, ongoing, and massive scale of the abuses of virtually all dioceses and the national episcopal conferences, it is arguable that they have a moral duty to do just what I am recommending.  That being said, diverting money to areas of parish finances that are not assessed is not easy, and bishops will react violently if lay Catholics do things like starting up lay-administered funds with which they pay for various parish needs.  The bishops really, really, REALLY do not like that, because  they know if the laity were to ever, en masse, start to make serious efforts to shield their money from assessment, the party would be over, and that right quick, in spite of the billions flowing into their coffers from the US taxpayer.

Fortunately, there do remain certain means to divert funds from sources that will be assessed by diocese.  Building funds are often a convenient location, that if assessed, are assessed at a much lower rate than the general parish income.  Saving money and making direct purchases for items such as objects of art, large capital equipment expenses, etc., are another means.  You might speak with your good, traditional pastor about other means of support.  If these steps are taken, they must be done individually, and not in an organized fashion.  Organization by lay people to fund their parish in ways that deny the dioceses ability to assess that money will bring down the wrath of iniquitous men upon you.  This has been tried, more than once, and the response by the bishops was always severe.