The Catholic Church's funding of ACORN

Veritas · #1 18th September 2009, 06:36 PM

Big Government Blog Archive ACORN and the Catholic Church: A Legacy of Big Hearts and Small Brains

For about fifty years, Catholics attending Mass the Sunday after Thanksgiving have been met with a second offertory collection for the “Catholic Campaign for Human Development” (CCHD). This is an arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), essentially a trade association for the 200 or so diocesan bishops in the U.S.

This collection is divided so that 25% of funds go to the local, diocesan CCHD offfice, and the other 75% are kicked upstairs to the head CCHD office at the USCCB. So, the local bishop has a profit-sharing incentive to push the collection. Parish pastors, even if they’re uncomfortable with where CCHD monies ultimately end up, don’t feel as if they can ruffle feathers with their boss to whom they have pledged a lifetime of obedience, the bishop. At my parish, and I would guess most other orthodox parishes, it’s offered without comment by the pastor (which savvy people can interpret as they see fit).

CCHD sent millions to ACORN over the past decade. We all know what ACORN did. Increasingly, it appeared that the Catholic Church was using the faithful’s monies to fund a group which steals elections for pro-abortion candidates for office. Many, including myself, were livid. And we let our bishops and others know it.It got so bad, the bishops felt under pressure from Catholic bloggers and influential Catholic media types and policymakers and took action (side note: it’s unlikely that anything would have happened a decade or more ago, before the rise of the Catholic blogosphere, as Notre Dame recently found out).
The bishops finally announced that CHD would no longer be funding ACORN around this time last year. Of course, that was only after $7.3 million had been appropriated to ACORN over the past decade by the CCHD. Ralph McCloud, the executive director of CCHD, even admitted that some of this money was “probably” used by ACORN to conduct voter registration drives.

Veritas · #2 18th September 2009, 06:39 PM

On a side note: I had been told by conservative friends in my parish over 10 years ago that the CCHD used contributions for left wing causes and never gave money. There were and are other ways to help the less fortunate than to fund the likes of ACORN.

SolomonVII · #3 18th September 2009, 07:57 PM

ACORN has no integrity. They have even been shown to be amoral enough so as to aid and abet and offern counsel as to how to get away with child prostitution with government money.

To the extent that our donations have gone to fund such groups, we have been aiding and abetting in evil.

The USCCB needs to fix its own moral compass.

Ave Maria · #4 18th September 2009, 08:00 PM

Wow. The Catholic Church gave money to ACORN?

AMDG · #5 18th September 2009, 08:08 PM

We had a thread about this last year--I think. It was decided that if we received envelopes for that second collection, we would just stuff the envelope with a picture of an acorn. We never had to. Never had that particular second collection in my parish.

As to ACORN having no integrity. That's for certain. I think there are federal investigations in about 20 states about them now. ACORN is at least an "equal opportunity" scammer.

IgnatiusOfAntioch · #6 18th September 2009, 08:41 PM

Who is policing the charitable giving by the Catholic Church in the US? This is completely indefensible! The The Church was established by Jesus Christ to save soles, not to become a social service organization. And the support of these corrupt socialist organizations is a corrupting influence on The Church.

eastcoast_bsc · #7 18th September 2009, 10:05 PM

Originally Posted by IgnatiusOfAntioch

Who is policing the charitable giving by the Catholic Church in the US? This is completely indefensible! The The Church was established by Jesus Christ to save soles, not to become a social service organization. And the support of these corrupt socialist organizations is a corrupting influence on The Church.

I agree with you that Acorn are a pack of scumbags.

But lets see what the Word of God says about social activities.

The Sheep and the Goats

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

WarriorAngel · #8 19th September 2009, 11:35 AM

Yep - every family has one.

One has to wonder if he knew - or what was he thinking?
Maybe ignorance was at play.
If not, prayers for the contributor.