New head of Catholic Relief Services defends program against critics
May 18, 2015
A month after the public revelation that a vice-president of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is a partner in a same-sex marriage, the new director of CRS has said that the US bishops’ overseas charity is “working through this.”
In an interview with John Burger of Aleteia, Carolyn Woo observed that same-sex marriage is a “very complex issue.” While the Church clearly does not recognize same-sex marriage, she said, “as it translates into practice there has not been defined a common approach for dealing with employment, particularly when the position is non-ministerial, when the person is not a Catholic, when the agency is not a school.”
Woo defended CRS against charges that it has been involved in programs that promote the distribution of contraceptives. While the agency sometimes forms strategic partnerships with other groups what promote contraception, she said, CRS itself never engages in programs that conflict with Church teaching.
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Further information:
- Catholic Relief Services Head Defends Collaboration With Partners Opposed to Church Teaching (Aleteia)
- Vice-president of US bishops' overseas charity is partner in same-sex marriage, group reports (CWN, 4/20)
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Posted by: Terri11 -
May. 20, 2015 12:57 PM ET USA
I've never understood the partnerships in the first place. If you don't have the troops to put on the ground, why give to other organizations who have just as much fundraising power as you do??? The sole reason I started supporting CRS was that I thought I was supporting *Catholic* charity. If I'd wanted to donate to Unicef, Oxfam, MSF, and a whole host of other organizations that provide contraceptives and abortions, I can look them up in less than a minute. I don't need CRS to do it.
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Posted by: Ken -
May. 19, 2015 9:30 PM ET USA
"We form strategic partnerships with evil but we never engage in evil programs."
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Posted by: james-w-anderson8230 -
May. 19, 2015 8:50 PM ET USA
The typical response of a lay run Church institution that has been mismanaged by the USCCB.
