what does it take to find an ACORN?

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Nov 04, 2008

 Bishop Roger Morin, who chairs the US bishops' committee that oversees the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), has announced an investigation into CCHD funding for the activist group ACORN. 

The bishops want to know where their money-- check that, where the money donated by the faithful, in the annual pre-Thanksgiving collection-- is going. That's good. But... Where did they think it was going? 

For about 25 years, concerned Catholics have been asking why the CCHD plows money into ACTION: a leftist group inspired by the professional agitator Saul Alinsky. What does a radical community-action group have to do with the alleviation of poverty, which is the stated purpose of the CCHD? 

Now at last the mainstream media has kicked in-- thanks to campaign-year charges that ACORN engaged in massive voter-registration form on behalf of the Obama campaign-- and now at last the hierarchy has taken notice. 

Over at the American Spectator, Joseph Lawler (and why does that name sound familiar?) also congratulates the bishops for questioning ACORN funding-- finally-- but wonders why it took high-profile embezzlement charges to bring the issue to a head. He concludes: 

Clearly, the CCHD won't stand for misappropriation of Church funds. When it comes to supporting a left-wing group promoting the most extreme pro-abortion candidate in history, however, the bishops are not quite as severe.