Real Catholic Blog

Below is a very informative video from RealCatholicTV.com (via YouTube.com) about corruption and scandal at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, especially as it relates to personnel there and the activities in which they are engaged which are counter to the teachings of the Church. One individual, John Carr, served on the board of the radical leftist group Center for Community Change (see Bellarmine Veritas Ministry).

Mr. Carr and others at the USCCB are funding organizations — remember the revelation of its funding to ACORN? — that have a left-wing political agenda including those that work to advance the agendas of pro-abortion and homosexual rights groups. As Michael Voris (Catholic.org) and Vic Faust (The American Catholic) explains in the video, it calls into question the role of the USCCB. For example, the Conference doesn’t rule on doctrine and teaching — that is up to the Vatican.

However, that doesn’t stop it from issuing letters, which it represents as authoritative. But its biggest fault is that it has and continues to staff its organization with leftist political ideologues who have, since the USCCB’s inception, used the imprimatur of the U.S. Bishops to influence the notions of the faithful, seminaries and Catholic colleges. In this way, it has poisoned the faithful by confusing them as to what the Church (God) teaches. This has led to division within the Church and a weakened voice in the culture of our country which abets abortion, a weakening of marriage and a general deterioration of our culture and spiritual lives.  

By the way, we have added two sources from the video — RealCatholicTV itself and Bellarmine Veritas Ministry to our Media section and Blogroll, respectively. Two others, American Life League (see article) and Pew Sitter (see article) are mainstays in our Public Policy Section and Media sections, respectively.

The USCCB needs a staff and policy house cleaning. Michael Voris and Vic Faust  provide a detailed report.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a feel good story about a lost soul finding the Light of the World. But it is true. George Soros, the extremely leftist billionaire, an admitted atheist who believes in — and uses his vast fortune to advance — abortion on demand, homosexual marriage, euthanasia, sex workers’ rights and plethora of  radical, secular progressive issues, is a major funder of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  

CCHD is the arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that the faithful support for its programs that aidthe poor. CCHD takes the money it receives and distributes grants to several organizations that work on poverty issues. Among those organizations: the notoriously corrupt ACORN. After this came to the USCCBs’ attention last year, it cut off funding to ACORN — after several years and $7.3 million hard earned dollars from the faithful.

Now, it’s a bit of the reverse. Soros, through a leftist organization he started, the Open Society Institute, has funded the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, an organization  formed by the bishops, to the tune of more than $500,000. Among the goals of the network: To advance the socialized medicine legislation now before Congress (including language permissive of taxpayer funding of abortion). So, we have an atheist funding the Catholic bishops. Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media, and writing for Right Side News, has the story, here.

Here’s an excerpt from Kincaid: 

But a review of the records of his (Soros’) Open Society Institute finds that a group calling itself Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) has received $200,000 from them over the last several years.

James Todd of Pewsitter.com, which represents traditional Catholics, calls such groups “CINOs,” or Catholics In Name Only. He explains, “This group and several others have sprung up recently — I suspect purposely organized and funded — to counterbalance the growing influence of the faithful Catholics AND to try to deceive and mislead the middle of the road Catholics that have determined the last 13 Presidential elections.”

An AIM investigation also finds, however, that Soros money has gone into the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), an organization established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops back in 1988. It has received at least $530,000 from the Open Society Institute.

It’s a pretty tangled web, with elements of money laundering and front groups. As such, it’s pretty alarming — and disappointing about our bishops. It’s worth reading Kincaid’s entire piece — and follow the links to further educate yourself. Meanwhile, several prominent Catholics have urged boycotting contributions to the CCHD and to give directly to organizations that directly help the poor and not lobby for legislation that promotes anti-Catholic teachings.

How can it be that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development still contributes money it collects at Mass to the corrupt organization known as ACORN? For years, ACORN was a beneficiary of the campaign, but that was before the public at large was aware of what this organization does and what it stands for. Recently, undercover journalists had several ACORN officials condone and even encourage what they thought was a prostitution ring. Last year, its fraudulent voter registration efforts were uncovered prompting FBI and attorneys general investigations in several states. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops promised that its partnership with ACORN, through CCHD, was done.

Apparently, not. That’s unfortunate. Now, several prominent Catholics are advocating a boycott of November’s collection for CCHD and, instead, give that money to righteous Catholic groups who do charity work CCHD purports to do, such as the Knights of Columbus, the St. Vincent de Paul Society or your own parish’s poor box.  

Here is an excerpt of a letter published by noted political activist and Catholic Richard Viguerie:

You probably think you’ve never given money to ACORN and its allies. But if you’ve contributed to the annual November Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) appeal of the Catholic bishops, you’ve done just that.

Each November, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops asks Catholics across the United States to contribute to the CCHD. Until last year, much of this money collected by the bishops’ appeal was funneled directly to ACORN.

Are you going to again let the bishops use your contributions — money that’s intended for charity — to promote extreme left-wing causes such as taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand? …

Scandals have forced the bishops to stop funding ACORN directly, but they still fund other groups closely tied to ACORN — groups that have the same aims and that use the same methods to promote a left-wing, extremist agenda.

Catholics are led to believe that their contributions to CCHD are used to help the poor — funding soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and other worthwhile projects that provide aid to the least fortunate among us.

In fact, it appears almost none of the money goes to the poor. Rather, it goes to organizations that engage in “community organizing” to promote a political agenda that many Catholics would find abhorrent, if only they knew. CCHD’s stated goal is “breaking the cycle of poverty,” but CCHD-funding organizations support policies that make it next to impossible for the poor to escape their circumstances. …

ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) received some $7.3 million from the CCHD in 1998-2008, and even more in earlier years. ACORN’s direct funding from CCHD was cut off in 2008, but only because of an eight-year-old embezzlement scandal that made it impossible to get a proper accounting of the money. It appears that the Bishops’ problem was with ACORN’s poor “accounting” practices, rather than with the goals and tactics of a group that blurs the distinction between a radical political organization and a Mafia-style racket.

ACORN is currently under investigation or indictment in 20 states for voter fraud. Its New Orleans headquarters, in a former funeral home, served as the address of more than 270 organizations, real or imaginary, most of which have received taxpayer funds. (Recent legislation makes ACORN and allied organizations eligible for billions of dollars more from federal, state, and local governments in the years to come.)

Recently, two fearless young people, carrying a hidden camera, showed that ACORN employees in a number of cities stood ready and eager to facilitate such criminal activities as tax fraud and the prostitution of underage illegal aliens.

Ralph McCloud, CCHD’s executive director, admitted to the Catholic News Service that “some of the funds that the Catholic Campaign contributed to ACORN in the past undoubtedly were used for voter registration drives.” Most, perhaps all, of those drives were conducted in support of politicians who support abortion-on-demand and other policies that most Catholics oppose.

Don’t be fooled by the CCHD’s recent cut-off of direct aid to ACORN. CCHD continues to fund other organizations that are clones of ACORN or closely allied with ACORN.

Read more about it here at Viguerie’s blog. He has a petition there that you can sign. He also asks that you forward it to as many people as possible to increase awareness of the situation with CCHD.