CCHD - Boycott This In November - ALL Localities!

With all the rightly-placed focus on the elections that will occur in two days, I can understand that the upcoming annual CCHD collection this November has slipped the minds of many.  Alas, it is a reality that now cries for our attention.

In previous posts, I had suggested that we all boycott the CCHD collection in all localities with the exception of the Chicago Archdiocese.  At the time, their local CCHD director had taken significant steps to improve the grant-making process, defunding various progressive organizations and redirecting those monies to pro-life organizations and those actively engaged in the Works of Mercy.  Sadly, but not too surprisingly, that director was released from his position.  There was an internal drive to have him fired. 

This latest development in Chicago, plus the unusual delay in CCHD's release of the names of current grantees, leaves me with the regretable but necessary task of calling for the boycott of the CCHD in all locations, no exceptions.

My CMC colleague, Stephanie Block, has recently written an excellent piece on the current state of affairs within the CCHD.  I link to it here and urge you to read it in its entirety.  She makes reference to the CCHD's September 15th paper, and links to it.  Read it.  I agree with Stephanie's assessment that it is nothing more than a puff piece to obfuscate remaining malfeasances within the CCHD.  Among other things, the document asserts that the CCHD was Catholic in its inception.  That's debatable.  I've outlined in previous posts that the Campaign for Human Development was the brainchild of Msgr Jack Egan of Chicago, who was trained in "community organizing" by Saul Alinsky himself.  Msgr Egan was such a problem for the Archbishop of Chicago that he was evicted from the chancery.  He sought, and was granted asylum and a base of operations by (Wait for this!  Are you ready?) Father Theodore Hesbergh of Notre Dame University in South Bend, IN!  Yes, he's the same Father Hesburgh who championed the infamous Land O' Lakes Statement and who continues to be an influence at Notre Dame.  It's really no surprise, now, that Obama was allowed to besmirch their May 2009 commencement; Obama was one of their own, and the progressive priests were celebrating his ascension to the White House.  With folks like Egan and Hesburgh who got the CCHD up and running, we're supposed to believe it was "Catholic in its roots"?

In the Archdiocese of Washington, the CCHD collection will be taken during the weekend of November 20-21.  Boycott it.  However, don't merely refrain from putting something in that collection basket.  In lieu of money, put a note in your envelope that briefly and politely explains why you cannot give to the CCHD.  Within the next few weeks, I'll point to some resources that you can use for that collection and to alert others to the problems of CCHD.