Coalition of Catholic Groups Call on Bishops to Stop CCHD’s Pro-Abortion Grants
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 11, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A coalition of pro-life Catholic groups issued a call today to the Catholic bishops to ensure that future Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) grants do not go to organizations that have policy positions favoring abortion.
The organizations include American Life League, Human Life International, Catholic Advocate, Bellarmine Veritas Ministry and Real Catholic TV, members of the Reform CCHD Now coalition.
They launched a new petition drive today with their call to ensure that CCHD abides by the pro-life teachings of the Catholic Church and engages in due diligence when it comes to the grant-making process.
The petition asks the bishops to "ensure no more Catholic dollars are spent to support organizations advocating abortion."
Catholics signing the petitions will call on the bishops to "suspend all national CCHD grants until the grants process has been reformed."
Catholic Advocate vice president Matt Smith commented on the call in a statement sent to LifeNews.com.
"Transparency and responsible stewardship of the money donated by hard-working American Catholics to further the mission of the Church should be a top priority for those in positions of authority at the Bishops’ Conference," he said.
CCHD donations are traditionally collected the weekend before Thanksgiving each year as one of the thirteen funds of the USCCB’s National Collections program. Donations average between $7 – 9 million annually.
The concerns about CCHD has been present since last October when HLI, ALL and BLM formed the coalition. After they exposed the pro-abortion activities of the some of the grant recipients, Bishop Morin, on October 2, announced that CCHD grantee groups Young Workers United and the Chinese Progressive Association had been defunded.
In November 2009 the Reform CCHD Now coalition revealed the CCHD was supporting 31 organizations which are members of a radically pro-abortion coalition of groups.
That same month, MIV partners, CA Partnership partners, SFOP, Preble Street, Voces De La Frontera, and other groups came under scrutiny.
As local bishops began responding to the concerns by discontinuing the collections for CCHD, the groups released a new report earlier this month. This report showed the CCHD ties to the pro-abortion Center for Community Change and indicated that two USCCB officials had served on the group in the past.
Then, RealCatholicTV released video evidence that within hours of the initial story breaking, the USCCB and Center for Community Change each removed any reference to the other organization from their respective web sites.
On February 2, Catholic Advocate called upon the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to suspend its grants pending "a complete review of its awards process."
The groups inform LifeNews.com that the USCCB "has yet to adequately respond to any of the charges since Bishop Morin’s Oct. 2 memorandum, but has instead attempted to reframe the reports as a personal attack against USCCB employees."
Human Life International’s Stephen Phelan said, "We remain hopeful these issues will be addressed, potentially leading to a renewal of the CCHD, and making it an organization that is a source of unity rather than division in the Church."
Related web sites:
Reform CCHD Now – https://www.reformcchdnow.com
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