The following comes from a November 22 story by Rey Flores published by American Life League.
On November 23 and 24, 2013, we will once again be hearing from a declining number of wayward priests and bishops across the country to contribute to the annual Catholic Campaign for Human Development, more commonly known as the CCHD collection.
Just the mere mention causes a mixed range of reactions from Catholics across the nation—mainly anger and confusion.
Having been the former director of the CCHD in Chicago, I can again assure you that all is still not right with this campaign. Year after year and report after report from several reliable sources have not been enough to convince the bishops that this annual collection no longer serves the noble purpose it purports to fulfill.
Also, year after year, the public relations spin doctors and peace and justice bureaucrats at the USCCB keep telling us to “move along, nothing to see here.”
How can we believe them when the national director of the CCHD is none other than Mr. Ralph McCloud, a lay Catholic with quite an interesting connection to Texas gubernatorial candidate and pro-abortion filibuster favorite Wendy Davis?
American Life League has reported this in the past, but somehow it makes a temporary splash and then the fox inevitably sneaks back into the henhouse.
Why aren’t our bishops seeing what we are seeing? Are they still wearing the rose-colored glasses of political correctness that have caused so much grief and damage to the Catholic Church in America?
Again for the record, the USCCB’s Ralph McCloud, head of the CCHD, was a fundraiser for Wendy Davis.
In a June 2013 article published on the LifeSiteNews website, American Life League’s Michael Hichborn had this to say shortly after Davis’ filibuster in the Texas capitol: “The real problem here is that McCloud had an obligation to know where Wendy Davis stood on moral issues before he gave her a ringing endorsement and agreed to be her campaign treasurer, but he didn’t even ask. . . . If he is unable to discern where a colleague he’s worked with for six years stood on abortion, then how on Earth is he going to be able to determine which organizations are worthy of Catholic funds? It would seem that our findings over the past four years speak for themselves.”
I don’t see how much clearer we could be.
Most recently, the CCHD continues down its seemingly incorrigible path and continues to shovel out its canned responses that do nothing more than insult the intelligence and charity of all Catholics.
In an October 29, 2013, press release, the US bishops’ CCHD flaunts some groups that again raise some red flags: “In the Archdiocese of Seattle and the Dioceses of Spokane and Yakima, the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center works with help from 16 religious communities and local ‘Women’s Justice Circles.’ One program, ‘Justice for Women,’ organizes women living in poverty by bringing them together with economically stable women from local faith communities. With low-income women in the lead, the circles identify the conditions that need changing and offer women spiritual strength and support.”
These “circles” sound more like new age Wiccan covens than anything else, and it’s the wayward nuns who run these programs who further malform poor immigrant women away from the Catholic Church. Instead of helping them, they are hurting them.
Like most of CCHD’s social justice jargon, it’s all about “empowerment” and “justice” and “organizing” this or that. Never does our Catholic identity enter its vocabulary. Talking about sin, death, and eternal souls is anathema to these social justice wannabes.
The CCHD is the official “eraser” of all Catholic identity in the American Catholic Church. We have gone so far off the reservation that it is almost impossible for us to find our way back!
The only remedy for the corrupt and incorrigible CCHD is to drive a stake of true justice through that program’s black heart and have the bishops start focusing once more on saving souls.
One look at all of the socialist agendas and Christian persecution going on right outside our windows should be telling enough on how this namby-pamby, do-gooder, social justice ecumenism has ravaged our Church like a terminal cancer.
I strongly recommend you read Phyllis Schlafly and George Neumayr’s No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom at your earliest convenience. In the appendix, you will find documentation straight from the vaults of the Archdiocese of Chicago, where it outlines how our bishops were giving Barack Obama $33,000 a year to basically organize leftists with Catholic money.
Within the same documents, you will find how ACORN was also receiving $30,000 for its ridiculously named “Homesteaders Rights Project,” which was the beginning of the eventual Fannie May/Freddie Mac housing collapse.
Also, as ACORN’s Madeline Talbott was getting her check, her husband Keith Kelleher was receiving a cool $20,000 for his Chicago Homecare Organizing Project. Kelleher’s endeavor today stands as the Service Employees International Union’s fifth largest local for the SEIU.
All of the facts you need to know are well-documented in these documents I helped procure for Neumayr. All demonstrate just how much the CCHD and some corrupt bishops are complicit in the way our country is falling apart as we speak.
Say no to the CCHD once and for all, and please share this far and wide with your Catholic family and friends.
Rey Flores is the director of outreach for American Life League and can be reached at rflores@all.org.
Click here to read the original story.
Catholic Campaign for Human Development, CCHD, is raises funds for ACORN. This is all you need to know. I give to my parish, but to the bishops nothing.
I sent my collection envelope through the paper shredder. Suggest you all do thr same. Perhaps some day they will get the message. The stench of ACORN will forever remain attached to this ignoble fund drive.
Amen to that Anton. I don’t donate to them.
TODAY’S THE DAY!!!!!
I think Bob Gaspar did a good job in finding some funding situations that should not have occurred. I think his efforts have made CCHD more careful. I notice that he did not release his report this year and that ALL carried this story, which is a rehash of things that were written years ago. It was on their website a week ago but the date on the article now says Nov 22.
Anonymous, so what is your point?
I hope that this information helps many others. I would not have known had it not been for this knowledge of information.
I reread this once again…had to try to understand it better. This infuriates me……I would rather just put the money towards my kids college. It a good thing I don’t donate to this, something kept telling me not to. When I was a newlywed, we use to donate because we thought it was a good Catholic thing to do…don’t be surprised many people are mislead even priests don;t know better…this information needs to be known, we need to have flyers at parishes so people can do their research. You’ll have priests telling people to not trust the resources because they may label this as being in dissent when in reality its not. Its just empowering the faithful to donate wisely and get our faith spread well and with loyalty to out morals. If I can’t trust our church leadership to be responsible with my donations then who can I trust?
We live in a culture where we are told that the “poor” are good and the “rich” are evil. This same idea holds true for business. We are told that tax exempt companies (i.e. non-profits) are “good” and for profit companies are “evil”. Well Planned Parenthood is a “non-profit” business (enough said). And that mom and pop small business down the street who provides goods and/or services that individuals in your community actually want, and donated some of their profits to your parish last year, is a “for-profit” business.
Make no mistake this campaign is designed to divide and conquer Americans. It is no more complicated than that.
What foolish arrogance by many American bishops (such as Bishop Loverde, of Arlington Diocese, VA), who continue to use official diocesan infrastructure in an effort to obtain money for this highly (and continuously) questionable organization. Until the many issues raised about CCHD connections to pro-abortion, pro-birth control, pro-homosexual sex, and other un-Catholic activities, no bishop should endorse CCHD for contributions and no one should donate anything to them. In fact, if bishops continue to pursue this course, stop contributing to the parish you belong to, and advise the pastor and the bishop that you will no longer contribute until all questions are solved. It seems that the bishops simply do not listen because they do not wish to know (or that they support the very organizations that promote non-Catholic activities). The parallel between the unthinking and aristocratic behavior of the USCCB and of the Obama Administration is a constant source of discussion among many in the Washington, D.C. area.
One of my life’s best lessons came from my father who taught me about discerning whether a person would be a good one to become friends with. He said to evaluate the people they hung around with. Need I add to that ?
Here in Los Angeles, if you DESIGNATE (CCD, Building Fund, Poor Program) any contribution to the parish, the entire donation stays in the parish.
If you do NOT designate the Archdiocese taxes that donation at te rate of 18% (10% for diocese appeal and 8% for Diocese support). If you do not designate you have no control how the diocese uses the money (perhaps to support CCHD). But if you designate, your pastor decides.
Women’s Justice Circles are not WICCAN covens. How irresponsible!
“Women who are migrant workers, immigrants, homeless, survivors of domestic violence and/or working in low wages jobs are joining other women across the economic spectrum to name their issues and work collectively to take practical steps for self-sufficiency, create a more promising environment for their children, and bring about systemic change for a more just community. They analyze their situation, gather information, design campaigns, recruit others, and take concrete steps that lead to systemic change in areas including housing, healthcare, education, transportation, domestic violence prevention, and immigrant issues.”
Please document your accusation that wayward nuns are leading women out of the Church in these groups.
We are commanded by Jesus to help the poor. We are not required to give to the CCHD which is merely another bureaucracy that takes it cut to pay expenses prior to what is left of the dollar for those in need.
The CCHD takes government grant money. Any organization that takes government money must adhere to the rules of the the Government rather than the rules of God.