Jul. 07, 2011 -- Vatican City (Agenzia Fides)
Appointment of National Director for Pontifical Mission Societies
Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, on 4 March 2011, appointed as National Director for the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States for the period 2011-2016, Fr Andrew Small, from the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate(OMI).
The new National Director was born on 20 April 1968 in Liverpool (England). He completed his secondary schooling at St Francis Xavier College in Liverpool, then studied law at Sheffield University. In January 1990 he began his novitiate with the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate(OMI) in Dublin (Ireland), where he made his first vows in 1991 and then perpetual vows in 1997. He studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and then at Milltown Institute (Dublin). He was ordained a priest in Liverpool in 1999. He was a missionary in Brazil (Recife), then assistant parish priest in Houston (Texas, United States). He continued legal studies at Georgetown University in Washington, and in theology at the Catholic University of America. He has acted in many local, national and international roles, among them as a Law Professor.
(SL) (Agenzia Fides 7/04/2011)
Feb. 22, 2011 -- Gualeguaychú (Agenzia Fides)
Argentina -- “We export food products to 100 million people, but every day in our own country six children die of malnutrition ” states Bishop Lozano
Gualeguaychú (Agenzia Fides) – The Bishop of Gualeguaychú, Bishop Jorge Lozano, reflects every week after Mass, on a point in the document “Towards a bicentenary in Justice and Solidarity (2010-2016)”, a document that the Bishops of Argentina issued at the end of the 96th Plenary Assembly of the Bishops' Conference. Bishop Lozano's comments have then been transcribed, printed and circulated in the community.
The text of the reflection on n.38, which speaks of the need to “implement agro-industrial policies for integral development” was sent to Fides. Bishop Lozano said: “Not only throughout history but also at the present moment and for the future, our country is linked to the campaign and the important realities of food production. We export food products to more than 100 million people. However, we must continue to take measures to guarantee that no child suffers from malnutrition in Argentina. This causes the death of six children per day from diseases linked to malnutrition, a grave injustice.”
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December 30,, 2010 -- Vatican City (Agenzia Fides)
The Names of Pastoral Workers, Priests, Men and Women Religious and Lay Catholics Killed During 2010
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – Once again this year, Fides publishes an annual document of all the pastoral workers who lost their lives in a violent manner over the course of the last 12 months. According to information in our possession, during 2010, 25 pastoral care workers were killed: one Bishop, 17 priests, one male religious, one religious sister, two seminarians and three lay people.
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December 30,, 2010 -- Vatican City (Agenzia Fides)
Catholic Church Statistics 2010
For October, the Month of the Missions, we offer several statistics that present a panoramic view of the missionary Church in the world.
Word format Pdf format
Jul. 07, 2010 -- Jerry Filteau -- NCR
10 dioceses quit bishops' antipoverty campaign
WASHINGTON -- At least 10 U.S. bishops have decided within the past year to suspend or drop their annual collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in their dioceses, and another is withholding funds at least for now.
Bishop Bernard Hebda of Gaylord, Mich., said in June that he has decided to delay sending the diocese's annual donation to the campaign until a review of its grant practices is completed. The U.S. bishops' subcommittee on the campaign is currently reviewing funding practices and gave a preliminary report to the bishops' Administrative Committee in March.
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June 1, 2010 -- The Reform CCHD Now coalition
Reports of CCHD Grantee Malfeasance Sent Directly to Bishops Ahead of Upcoming Meeting
The Reform CCHD Now coalition (RCN) announced today that detailed reports on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) were recently sent to each bishop and diocesan pro-life director in the U.S. These reports document problems that have yet to be addressed by the CCHD, regarding the nature and activities of many CCHD grantees.
Compiled by Michael Hichborn of American Life League (ALL) and Robert Gasper of Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM), the reports show that almost 50 grantees still receiving funds from the CCHD remain involved in activities directly opposed to Catholic moral and social teachings.
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September 27, 2009 -- Washington D.C. (CNA)
Watchdog group 'pleased' with defunding of grantees who violate Catholic teaching
A watchdog group which discovered that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has given grants to groups which support abortion and same-sex "marriage" has said it is pleased that the campaign has taken steps to defund at least two of the organizations.
Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM), which describes itself as "a Catholic grass-roots organizing ministry dedicated to truth and action," in August announced its effort to address some "troubling groups" funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD).
According to its website, the CCHD was founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops in 1970 to fund projects such as voter registration, community organizations, community-run schools, minority-owned cooperatives and credit unions, capital for industrial development and job training programs, and rural cooperatives.
The CCHD makes grants to organizations that work to eliminate the "root causes" of poverty and to enact "institutional change."
Though the campaign's criteria require that funded activity must conform to the moral and social teachings of the Catholic Church, BVM found that some grantees' advocacy undermines those teachings.
One group, the Chinese Progressive Association, was to receive $30,000 in CCHD money in 2009.
The association's 2008 voting guide characterized California's Proposition 8 as "discrimination against same-sex couples" and opposed Proposition 4, a parental notification restriction on abortion. It also filed a legal brief in support of same-sex "marriage."
According to the research tool Implu.com, the association's revenues were $562,960 in 2007, the last year for which information is available. That year, it received a $30,000 CCHD grant. It received $25,000 grants in both 2006 and 2008.
Another grantee is the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN), which promotes same-sex "marriage" and actively supports contraception and the morning-after pill through its Downtown Women's Center clinic. It has received CCHD grants for the past five years and was to receive $40,000 for 2009-2010.
CCHD Director Ralph McCloud was informed of BVM's findings by LifeSiteNews.com on September 10. On September 18 he said that both the Chinese Progressive Association and LACAN had been defunded.
LifeSiteNews.com reported that he was still waiting to hear from the Young Workers United.
The organization, a new 2009 CCHD grantee, supports legalized abortion, legalized prostitution, and same-sex "marriage." The organization also sponsored a counter-protest to the Walk for Life – West Coast march in San Francisco in January 2008.
It was awarded a $25,000 grant for 2009-2010. The National Center for Charitable Statistics reports that the group's 2007 revenue amounted to $350,091.
The BVM report has also criticized a $30,000 CCHD grant to the Women's Community Revitalization Project, a coalition member of a group which favors abortion, the morning-after pill, contraception and same-sex "marriage."
McCloud said that he was "shocked" by the BVM report. He said the groups' profiled work in low-income communities did not include activities like voter's guides.
"When we had first begun a relationship with them, they weren't doing any advocacy at all, and we focus just on that particular portion of the work," he reported.
CNA contacted McCloud for further comment but did not receive a response by press time.
"We are pleased with this first step and regard it as a sign of good faith by the CCHD," Bellarmine Veritas Ministry said in a statement. "However, we remain concerned with how these organizations were cleared to receive funding in the first place."
The group said Catholics should feel assured that they will not fund groups which promote abortion or any other practice contrary to "the moral and natural law." However, in its view, there is no such assurance.
"Hundreds of thousands of dollars have made their way to such groups and if the current standards remain in place, the risk remains for the future."
Bellarmine Veritas Ministry said it will continue to advise Catholics to withhold donations from the CCHD until "more robust" guidelines are implemented.
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Note:
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) does not provide "Direct Services" such as feeding, clothing and housing the poor. It funds secular "Social Change" organizations that empower the poor or oppressed to organize and fight for government, union change through networking and community organization.
Two of the organizations receiving millions of dollars are the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF).
ACORN was well known for organizing sub-prime mortgages for poor families who could not possibly afford to pay them.
IAF is a radical organization founded by Saul Alinsky author of "Rules for Radicals". A manual for radicals.
Alinsky's magnum opus, "Rules for Radicals," contain the following "acknowledgement:"
"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer"
Hundreds of smaller organizations receive grants for specific projects. Unfortunately some of these organizations do very little for the poor and some support abortion and stem cell research.
Catholic charities must not become "indistinguishable from secular organizations such as UNICEF, the Red Cross, and others."
Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes
Ahead of a discussion by the U.S. bishops of now-severed links between their top domestic anti-poverty program and the controversial ACORN network, the pope's top lieutenant on charitable activities has warned that Catholic relief agencies must not lose their religious identity.
Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, speaking to the bishops this morning, did not enter into the debate about ties between the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and ACORN. He did, however, issue a general caution that Catholic charities must not become "indistinguishable from secular organizations such as UNICEF, the Red Cross, and others."
November 10, 2008 -- John L Allen Jr
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Cornerned Catholic:
"On October 7th I was invited to join a group of parishioners who would become the core team for a new ministry forming in Oklahoma City. The group was to be an interfaith committee to make substantial changes in the lives of the poor. I agreed to at least attend the meeting and see what kind of time commitments it required. Chris Ausdenmoore, the organizer for the group, introduced herself and explained the process of forming a core team for Oklahoma City. She asked if I had ever participated in community organizing. I told her until the news headlines about ACORN1 I‘d never heard the term. She cringed a little, but said her organization was not ACORN, it was IAF, Industrial Areas Foundation."
Letter from Jo Joyce to:
Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight
Knights of Columbus
regarding IAF and Catholic Charities
