Catholic World News

New ties found between CCHD, anti-Catholic activists November 20, 2009

As thousands of Catholic parishes across the US prepare to take up the annual pre-Thanksgiving collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), a coalition of pro-life groups has revealed new evidence that the CCHD has funneled support to groups that support abortion, same-sex marriage, and other causes condemned by the Church.

The Reform CCHD Now Coalition charged that in the past year along, the CCHD has given $1.3 million to groups that oppose Church teachings on fundamental moral issues. The coalition offered a listing of groups that have won grants from the CCHD while pursuing other projects that work directly against Catholic teachings.

The CCHD-- which describes itself as the "domestic anti-poverty, social justice program of the U.S. Catholic bishops"-- supports programs that help people in needy communities to organize on behalf of social change. The CCHD draws its support from the $7- 9 million contributed by Catholics each year to a nationwide collection. This year's collection will be taken up in most parishes on November 22.

The Reform CCHD Now Coalition is spearheaded by three groups: the American Life League, Human Life International and the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry, which jointly issued the November 20 press release pointing to new problems with the US bishops' program. Since the coalition began its effort to expose the radical activism of the CCHD, officials in two American dioceses-- Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Madison, Wisconsin-- have announced that they will not join in this year's collection.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Reform the Catholic Campaign for Human Development
• Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) Information (American Life League)
• National Campaign: Addressing The CCHD (Bellarmine Veritasministry)

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Sound Off! Comments

• Posted by: bkmajer3729 - Nov. 22, 2009 8:42 PM ET USA

  Is there no one with any political clout that can get the truth in front of the Catholic Bishops? Don't these guys measure and verify anything? This money they give away isn't theirs - it belongs to our Father in Heaven. Given the stakes, it seems measurement and verification are not only in order but absoletely necessary!! Doesn't the Vatican demand any sort of verification process? Isn't eternal life in the balance here? What am I missing?

• Posted by: JITIY - Nov. 22, 2009 5:44 PM ET USA

  Thanks to investigative reporting by The Wanderer, I stopped giving to CCHD many years ago. Sadly, it's just now reaching the Catholic faithful's ears. Still the bishop reporting on CCHD to the USCCB this week, while acknowledging funds cutoff to ACORN, failed to blame CCHD for granting $7,000,000 of pew collections to that devil's stronghold, to acknowledge continued grants to promoters of abortion and homosexual "marriage". BISHOPS, SHUT DOWN CCHD!

• Posted by: thrice.try@hotmail.com - Nov. 22, 2009 2:25 AM ET USA

  Seems impossible to support anti poverty and social justice programs without crossing over the line into anti Catholic teachings. By their nature, those programs remain humanistic and refuse to support any measure of biblical laws or religious beliefs. Hard for some to serve two masters. But for years our church has served Christ without any problems. So, what has changed?

• Posted by: Minnesota Mary - Nov. 20, 2009 6:02 PM ET USA

  I'm sorry to learn that Archbishop Neinstedt of the diocese of Minneapolis/St. Paul is urging people to contribute to CCHD this weekend in his diocesan column in "The Catholic Spirit." He has apparently been misled by the bishop who calls the shots for CCHD.