Robbing Peter to Pay Saul

More Catholic money funding the enemies of the Catholic Church. Next, on the American Life League Report. [music] Since 2009, American Life League and the Reform CCHD Now coalition have been shining the white-hot light of truth on Saul Alinsky community organizing groups that receive funding from the Catholic Church. Since that time, we’ve profiled over 100 grantees that are promoting abortion, birth control, homosexuality, and even Marxist socialism while receiving millions of dollars from unsuspecting, faithful Catholics even though they signed contracts with the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, promising that they won’t do any of those things. Just this year, the Reform CCHD Now coalition profiled 74 such organizations who made off with $2.9 million … that’s 38% of the overall grants for this past year. In fact, over the past three years, as the total number of grants distributed to community organizing groups has gone down, money going to enemies of the Catholic Church has gone up dramatically. This is why the Reform CCHD Now coalition is demanding that these organizations return the money they took from the Catholic Church under false pretenses. What false pretenses? Well, for one thing, 21 of the CCHD grantees, which account for over a three-quarters of a million dollars, are affiliates of the Gamaliel Network. And the Gamaliel network apparently fabricated evidence and LIED to the national CCHD about its relationship with an organization promoting legal recognition of same-sex couples. Here’s the quick version of the story: Investigators let the Catholic Campaign know that Gamaliel was a member of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement ... or FIRM, and sits on its executive committee. Here’s the problem: as a member of FIRM’s executive committee, Gamaliel participated in FIRM’s decision to publicly endorse the legal recognition of same-sex couples. When the National CCHD confronted Gamaliel and asked, “What are you doing hanging out with FIRM, “ Gamaliel claims, “Well, here’s a copy of a letter we sent to FIRM in 2010 saying, we can’t work with you anymore.” But if that’s the case, then Gamaliel needs to explain why in 2011, Gamaliel’s website contained several documents that identify itself as a member of FIRM, including membership on FIRM’s executive Committee. Even more damning is a posted set of notes from FIRM’s conference call for its members that took place in December of 2011. These notes show that one of the members participating is the Executive Director of Gamaliel, and that Gamaliel was nominated to FIRM’s executive committee for 2012. The Reform CCHD Now coalition discovered several other problems with Gamaliel, but once Gamaliel lied directly to the CCHD about its relationship with FIRM, it made itself totally unworthy of Catholic funds. The guidelines established in the CCHD’s grant application form are clear: Grantee agrees that it will not engage in activities in conflict with fundamental Catholic moral or social teaching … which includes promotion or support for abortion and same-sex marriage. And when a Grantee violates this guideline? USCCB may, in its discretion, require Grantee to refund to USCCB the full amount of the CCHD grant and to transfer title to USCCB of any property purchased by the Grantee with CCHD grant funds. So, any grantee found promoting abortion or homosexual activism is in violation of this contract, and therefore, owes the money back to the Catholic Church. Here’s a few examples of the grantees Reform CCHD Now found in violation of this particular agreement. We’ll start with the Cleghorn Neighborhood Center. Cleghorn got a grant for $30,000. Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood listed Cleghorn as a “community partner” on its 2011 Title X application form. According to this application, a community partner is an organization that makes referrals to Planned Parenthood’s family planning programs. Furthermore, as a referral partner, Cleghorn received Planned Parenthood brochures, postcards, and magnets to distribute to community members. Here’s another one … the Community Action Board, or CAB, also received $30,000 Catholic dollars. Even though CAB deleted this page from its website, CAB boasted on its history page that it “successfully pushed for the establishment of … family planning services that are now operated by the County of Santa Cruz.” CAB is a supporter of the Safer Sex Machines, and happened to include Planned Parenthood locations in a resource and service guide it created for homeless people. Here’s one more … The Syracuse Cooperative Federal Credit Union, which got $40,000 from faithful Catholics. They gave a grant directly to Planned Parenthood! They LIKE gay marriage for New York. Its mission statement claims that it was established in order to help fund the homosexual community. It’s co-founder, CEO and treasurer, Ron Ehrenreich, formed the Socialist Party of Central New York. His e-mail address is “SmashState” at earthlink dot net. And he was the vice-presidential candidate for the Socialist Party USA in 1988! Do these this sound like groups that ought to be asking for money from the Catholic Church? Earlier this year, a grantee in Boston, Massachusetts called the Chelsea Collaborative had the organizational integrity to return its $40,000 grant to the CCHD because it could not abide by the grant guidelines. In the spirit of Chelsea returning its grant, we and the whole Reform CCHD Now coalition are calling upon all grantees profiled in the full report to follow suit and return their funds to the Catholic Church as well. For American life League I'm Michael Hichborn.