IMPORTANT NOTE: After signing the petition you will be given the option of sending a personalized post-card to Archbishop Coakley expressing your concerns.
Background:
A new report by the Lepanto Institute has found that between 2006 and 2010 Catholic Relief Services (CRS) received, stored, and dispensed 2.25 million units of contraception, including Depo-Provera, two forms of oral contraceptives, intra uterine devices (IUDs), male and female condoms, and even surgical sterilization kits. The Institute's report uses annual and quarterly reports submitted to the US Government, and provides inventory reports, graphs, and narratives.
This is only the latest scandal involving CRS that has called into question the Catholic relief organization's commitment to Catholic teaching regarding its funding relationships and activities. In 2008, theologian Germaine Grisez published details of his discovery that CRS was promoting condom use and concealing its activities. In 2012, several investigators discovered that CRS routinely provided tens of millions of dollars to organizations that were distributing contraception, performing surgical sterilizations and committing abortions. That same year, LifeSiteNews published an article showing that CRS had again published several documents promoting the use of condoms. In 2013, Population Research Institute published a report detailing CRS’s participation in the promotion and distribution of contraception in Madagascar. In 2015, the Lepanto Institute and Population Research Institute published the results of a joint investigation showing that CRS was the lead organization for a PEPFAR-funded project that contained two contraception-promoting programs.
In each instance, Catholic Relief Services attacked the whistleblowers and denied having had any part in the promotion or distribution of abortifacient contraception. In CRS’s 2013 response to the investigation by Population Research Institute, CRS said:
“CRS programming does not include the promotion or distribution of artificial family planning or distribution of abortifacients in any country in which we work.”
That same year, the USCCB issued a statement of support for CRS, wherein the bishops stated:
“It is and has been CRS’ policy never to distribute or promote artificial contraceptives or abortifacients or to promote abortion."
Click here to read the report.
Pope Benedict XVI’s November 2012 motu proprio On the Service of Charity makes the following requirement of charitable agencies of the Catholic Church:
“The diocesan Bishop is to ensure that charitable agencies dependent upon him do not receive financial support from groups or institutions that pursue ends contrary to Church’s teaching.”
Sign the petition asking Archbishop Coakley, chairman of the board for Catholic Relief Services, to bring CRS into conformity with Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio.
This petition is sponsored by The Lepanto Institute
