Soros bankrolling efforts to sway US bishops toward 'progressive' policies
August 24, 2016
Investor/activist George Soros spent $650,000 to subsidize groups that were intent on lobbying American bishops, urging them to support 'progressive' domestic policies, emails made public by Wikileaks show.
Soros made his investments, through his Open Society Foundation, in PICO and Faith in Public Life, two liberal organizations, in 2105. Their goal, expressed in internal documents, was to use the September 2015 visit of Pope Francis to the US as an opportunity to "shift national paradigms and priorities in the run-up to the 2016 presidential campaign." The Open Society Foundation set a goal of using these groups "to shift the US Catholic Church to be a voice on behalf of the poor and communities of color..."
The Soros organization was particularly pleased with the potential of PICO, saying that the group could influence Pope Francis by "using the influence of Cardinal Rodriguez"-- a reference to Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the chairman of the Council of Cardinals. The effort was at least partially successful; the Pope invited PICO to participate in the 3rd World Meeting of Popular Movements at the Vatican.
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Posted by: skall391825 -
Aug. 24, 2016 9:27 PM ET USA
When I pointed out on the top Catholic comment forum that the CCHD gave 14% of its grants to PICO, my post was quickly deleted. I did not characterize PICO or mention that it was an Alinskyian organizing and political activity group. What's going on?
