Since its inception, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) (the official anti-poverty program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) has been a cause for deep concern to the Catholic faithful.
Indeed, the CCHD is a highly controversial wing of the USCCB, which has, and continues to, promote anti-Church teaching in the name of fighting poverty.
And, right now, the national collection for the CCHD is quickly approaching, coming up on the weekend of November 23 and 24.
Thus, this joint petition - bringing together LifeSite and the Lepanto Institute - politely asks each and every U.S. Catholic bishop to withdraw their dioceses from the yearly CCHD collection.
Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s, various Catholic organizations have chronicled the CCHD's funding of organizations involved in the promotion of abortion, contraception, homosexuality and Marxism.
In 1996, the Baltimore Sun published an article indicating that the CCHD provided funding to JEDI Women, 9 to 5 Working Women, and the National Health Care Campaign, all of which promoted abortion and contraception. Incredibly, the CCHD responded with a memo claiming that it "has never and will never fund a project not in accord with Catholic moral teachings."
In 2009, a coalition of prominent lay Catholic organizations and leaders formed, calling for the Reform of the CCHD. At the center of this call were highly detailed reports showing that dozens of CCHD-funded groups were directly promoting abortion, contraception, homosexuality and Marxism.
The cry of this coalition led to a “Review and Renewal” of the CCHD, wherein the CCHD formally apologized “for the violations of CCHD policies by these groups and for the damage and confusion they have caused.”
The Review and Renewal was to be a firming up of the CCHD’s standards and oversight, even adopting a new stipulation that CCHD will not provide funding to “groups which are part of coalitions which act in conflict with fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching.”
However, the Review and Renewal was a dismal failure.
In fact, over the course of the last 9 years, the CCHD has completely ignored its own requirements regarding coalitions and continues to fund organizations directly involved with the promotion of grave moral evils.
For instance, after the Review and Renewal and despite clear-cut proof that the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC) is actively promoting homosexual activism, the NWBCCC has received CCHD funding in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 for a total of $265,000.
And, even last year (2018), the CCHD was found to be giving $35,000 to an openly Socialist organization called the Indianapolis Worker’s Justice Center whose leadership is heavily involved in the promotion of abortion and homosexuality.
But the most egregious and scandalous grant provided by the CCHD since the Review and Renewal was the $750,000 that it provided to the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN), just this summer (2019).
ISN is an active promoter of homosexual perversions, including transgenderism. On its website are numerous articles and events promoting homosexualism and its annual Ignatian Family Teach-In conference regularly includes talks and break-out sessions on LGBT activism and transgender inclusion.
ISN provided a speaking venue to the Vatican-condemned New Ways Ministry, which promotes same-sex “marriage.”
In 2018, ISN’s Teach-In workshop titled, “Transgender Voices in the Church,” which was convened by the New Ways Ministry, specifically states its intention to send participants away with resources for conducting transgender activism. The description for this workshop says:
- “Catholics increasingly face questions of transgender inclusion, intersecting with issues like race and sexual orientation that compound marginalization. This interactive session will examine how trans voices are both present and silent in our communities. Participants will leave with resources for building trans justice in their communities.”
The CCHD’s response to concerned Catholics was that this workshop, and others like it, were “in line with the Catechism.”
Of course, that is an outright untruth. And, now, Catholic laymen and women need to protest to their bishops, that we will no longer accept funding promoters of homosexuality and abortion in our name.
As above, the national collection for the CCHD is taking place the weekend of November 23 and 24!
Be sure to let your bishop know that you will not be participating, and ask him to withdraw your diocese completely from the CCHD altogether.
U.S. Catholic bishops need to be made aware of what is being facilitated in their name, by a rogue agency bent on funding organizations who promote homosexuality, transgenderism and abortion, all of which are ideas and practices contrary to the Catholic Faith.
The unsuspecting faithful, who are being asked to give to the CCHD, should not be party to funding anti-Catholic ideas and practices in the name of fighting poverty.
Please SIGN and SHARE this urgent petition. Thank you!